Multicoin Capital: Why is Geodnet a key part of the physical AI era?

The AI-driven robot revolution has become an irreversible trend, and the key lies in the timing of the comprehensive outbreak.

Authored by: Shayon Sengupta, Partner at Multicoin Capital

Compiled by: Yuliya, PANews

Cryptocurrency investment firm Multicoin announced on February 25 that it has strategically acquired $8 million worth of GEOD tokens from the Geodnet Foundation. Geodnet is a precisely positioned network that provides critical positioning services for drones, autonomous vehicles, and potentially emerging robots in the future through the DePIN( decentralized physical infrastructure network ) economic model.

The era of physical AI is coming

Although we have not yet reached the future scene of humanoid robots living with humans as depicted in "Blade Runner 2049", by 2025, professional robots have quietly integrated into various aspects of modern life. Currently, language models are commercializing intelligence, unleashing new creativity, and changing the form of knowledge work. However, the development of AI is not limited to the fields of text, images, and videos. Its evolution is extending to the physical world, and robot technology will become the next important frontier.

As AI models become more capable, their ability to understand and interact with the physical environment will increase significantly. This shift will enable new types of autonomous systems, from self-driving cars and humanoid robots to drones and industrial automation equipment, that will operate as intelligently and autonomously as ever before. And for these robots to function, they all need to answer a basic question: Where am I?

Positioning: A $5 billion problem

When tens of millions of autonomous and semi-autonomous devices are deployed, they all face the same challenge: spatial awareness. Whether it's drone delivery, autonomous vehicles navigating in dense urban environments, agricultural machinery performing precise planting, they all require sub-centimeter level positioning accuracy to operate safely and efficiently.

To achieve such high accuracy, these systems rely on sensor fusion, combining multiple positioning methods.

LiDAR ( provides high-resolution depth mapping, but performs poorly in foggy or rainy conditions (and has issues such as being heavy, power-consuming, and costly).

The radar )RADAR( provides robust distance measurement but lacks fine accuracy.

Vision-based SLAM technology supports real-time mapping, but performance can be significantly degraded in low-visibility environments.

Among the various positioning solutions available, the positioning system based on GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) combined with RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) base station correction is recognized as one of the most reliable solutions.

Standard GNSS positioning has an inherent accuracy deviation of 5-10 meters due to atmospheric interference and multipath errors. RTK solves this problem by using fixed base stations to compare satellite signals with known positions and transmit real-time correction data, achieving centimeter-level accuracy - which is crucial for physical AI applications. Currently, mainstream robotics and automation companies integrate RTK into their systems:

• DJI is used for high-precision drones;
• John Deere is used for autonomous driving tractors;
• Tesla is used for self-driving cars;
• Boston Dynamics used for industrial inspection robots.

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Image Source: GNSS Store

However, RTK is currently facing cost challenges. The construction and maintenance of RTK base stations require a large amount of capital investment, including hardware, site acquisition, and maintenance, among other investments. Traditional suppliers such as Trimble, Hexagon, and Topcon build their own stations and charge thousands of dollars for each tracking device, limiting their accessibility and deployment speed. The coverage often focuses on profitable areas, leaving many regions without access to high-precision positioning services.

Restructure the cost structure through DePIN

Based on a token-incentivized contributor ownership model, DePIN fundamentally restructures the cost structure of global hardware-intensive networks. As the world's largest precision positioning network, Geodnet leverages this principle to incentivize independent operators to install RTK base stations and provide correction data in exchange for token rewards.

By transferring the cost burden from a single operator to a distributed network, Geodnet is able to deploy production-grade RTK base stations at costs far below traditional vendors, mainly by eliminating the two major costs of network construction: land and labor. This enables Geodnet to expand coverage more quickly, ensure redundancy, and provide more reliable GNSS correction services than existing service providers.

This model creates an organically expanding global distributed network, significantly reducing end-user costs while ensuring service quality. Geodnet has been rapidly expanding since last year, growing from 1,400 base stations in November 2022 to 7,800 in June 2024, and by January 2025, it has over 13,000 base stations covering 4,377 cities in more than 142 countries.

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Currently, the Geodnet network has implemented 'threshold scale', and its service capacity covers over 60% of the GNSS correction market. It is worth noting that the network has achieved this supply with extremely high capital efficiency—only 11% of tokens have been distributed to contributors in the past three years.

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Geodnet is a model case of the DePIN mode in practice. Geodnet base stations not only reduce the purchase and deployment costs by an order of magnitude (consumer-grade mining machines $700 vs enterprise-grade RTK base stations $12,000), but also benefit from a more intensive consumer-grade network deployment, resulting in a significant reduction in annual pricing. Geodnet is undoubtedly the most scalable and cost-competitive positioning solution in the world today.

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Currently, Geodnet creates approximately 3 million dollars in annual on-chain revenue by providing services to leading drone companies such as Propeller, DroneDeploy, Quectel, as well as government agencies like the USDA, demonstrating the fastest demand side growth in the DePIN field.

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In early conversations with Geodnet founder Mike Horton, when asked how to acquire the world's most influential customers for autonomous driving, drones, and agricultural robots, his answer was always consistent: the core structural cost advantage brought by the DePIN mode.

Turning point has come

In the next ten years, robot technology will enter a period of explosive growth. From industrial manufacturing to daily life, tens of millions of robots are expected to be deployed in various fields. Drones will inspect power lines and pipeline facilities in the air, autonomous vehicles will reshape the pattern of freight and travel services, intelligent warehousing robots will replace manual operations on a large scale, and household humanoid robots will gradually enter thousands of households to assist with daily tasks.

Precise positioning capability is the cornerstone of this robot revolution. Without reliable positioning data, any autonomous robot will find it difficult to perform its intended functions. Take autonomous driving cars for example, in urban canyons with weak GPS signals, they must rely on RTK-enhanced GNSS systems for safe navigation; similarly, delivery drones also require centimeter-level accuracy to accurately land at designated charging station locations. Therefore, RTK positioning is no longer just a supplement to sensors such as lidar and radar, but has become a critical infrastructure for robot operations.

Currently, many robot companies pay high fees for traditional GNSS correction services every year, but still face many problems such as limited coverage and unstable accuracy. In contrast, Geodnet, through innovative DePIN mode, not only significantly reduces service costs, but also provides higher quality positioning services. This breakthrough solution is attracting more and more enterprise customers, providing reliable positioning guarantee for current and future autonomous robots.

The AI-driven robot revolution has become an irreversible trend, and the key lies in the timing of the comprehensive outbreak. The robotics industry is accelerating, and Geodnet's precise positioning network will ensure that these robots can operate safely and efficiently. In the upcoming era of robots, Geodnet's positioning services will play an irreplaceable role in providing precise and reliable location information support for global robots.