Five questions before you trust a hardware network

New networks launch faster than anyone can tour them. The filter below is the one used on this desk before a project earns a closer look. It is not investment advice. It will not tell you what to buy. It will tell you whether there is a machine in the story.

• What physical job is being done, in one sentence a technician would recognize?
• Who can check the job happened — a customer, a sensor, a neighbour’s device — and what can be faked?
• Who pays, and for which unit: a gigabyte, a correction, an inference, an hour of coverage, a verified sample?
• What still has to be true on the day the reward is worth less and the electricity bill is not?
• Would a robot or an AI system buy this, or is the only user another token holder?

How to use the map on this site

The networks page groups examples by the job they claim: position, identity, spatial memory, compute, wireless, mapping, device coordination, collective financing of machines. Inclusion is not a ranking and not an endorsement. Projects change, shut down, and rename. Use the list to know what aisle you are in, then apply the five questions before you spend time or money.