Andrew’s Calculated Leap: From Dogecoin to 181 Miners Across 9 DePIN Projects
When Andrew first fired up a Dogecoin miner in 2013, he had no idea it would lead him to one of the most exciting experiments in decentralized infrastructure a decade later. Back then the rig literally melted a Molex riser off his motherboard… a painful lesson in hardware limits, but also a spark that would fuel years of curiosity.
Like many early adopters, Andrew dabbled, lost interest, then came back strong. His pivotal moment came in early 2020 when a close friend told him about Helium. That friend is now a millionaire, but Andrew did not hesitate either. He pulled the trigger on a $2,000 IoT miner off eBay, barely earning a fraction of the cost back. For most people, that would have been the end of the story… but for Andrew, it was just the start.
Betting Big on Helium, Before the World Believed
By late 2020 Helium was in a slump. The forums were pessimistic, tokens were down, and hope was scarce. But Andrew saw something others did not… the tokenomics still made sense. He dropped $5,000 to $6,000 on CBRS equipment, joined the Genesis cohort, and taught himself the ins and outs of radio deployments.
Then came Hivemapper in 2022 and 2023, where Andrew’s normal American 15,000 miles of annual driving ended up returning several dollars a mile. By late 2023 Helium CBRS took off, and Andrew was ready. He scaled to 14 radios and multiple sites, netting hundreds per day and multiplying his investment many times over.
That conviction, staking big when others hesitated, was the turning point.
Hunting for Alpha in the Reddit Trenches
Andrew didn’t stumble into DePIN blindly, he spent hours scrolling through Reddit threads, Discord chats, and Telegram groups, trying to separate hype from real opportunity. For every “When moon?” post, there were nuggets of insight buried deep in comment chains, and he made it his job to find them.
One late night in 2021, he came across a long Reddit post that broke down the business model of Helium Mobile. The post explained how Helium’s vision wasn’t just radios, it was building a decentralized carrier, where subscriber growth would be the ultimate driver of token demand. The numbers were compelling, early adopters were signing up, offload payments were fixed at $0.50 per gig, and proof-of-coverage rewards created a strong baseline.
At first, Andrew was skeptical. But as he kept watching the subscriber count rise week after week, conviction set in. This wasn’t just another mining scheme, it was a business with users.
And then came the kicker… buried in a thread, someone casually dropped a link confirming Helium Mobile’s partnership with T-Mobile. That was the moment Andrew knew he was onto something real. If one of the world’s largest carriers saw value in the model, then the upside was enormous.
That single rabbit hole turned into a playbook, find the alpha early, do the math, and scale aggressively before the crowd catches on.
From Reddit Threads to the DePIN Forum
For Andrew, Reddit was a goldmine of early alpha, if you had the patience to wade through endless noise. But as the ecosystem grew, so did the complexity. Nine projects, multiple tokens, shifting tokenomics… tracking it all through scattered comment threads became nearly impossible.
That is where the DePIN Forum on Moken came in. Instead of piecing together rumors from dozens of subreddits, Andrew could now tap into a single public forum where builders, deployers, and enthusiasts shared real numbers, deployment tips, and market insights.
The forum became his shortcut. No more waiting for a buried comment to surface the big news, now alpha was organized, searchable, and community-verified. For someone who had built conviction by sifting through noise, the DePIN Forum turned that process into a strategic edge.
Scaling Beyond Helium: Nine Projects, One Vision
Today, Andrew runs a network of 181 miners across nine DePIN projects, from WeatherXM to Geodnet, Hivemapper, Wingbits, and even ROVR. Using Helium Deploy’s DePIN Tracker, he can view real-time earnings across all networks in one dashboard:
(Source: @FreeShkreli’s profile on Moken.io)
In the last 30 days alone, Andrew’s network produced…
- 739 $HNT from Helium WiFi with 130 units
- 921 $GEOD from Geodnet with 3 units
- 16,155 $HONEY from Hivemapper with 13 units
- 845 $WINGS from Wingbits with 1 unit
- 460 $ROVR from ROVR with 1 unit
The DePIN Tracker isn’t just a pretty graph, it is the difference between guessing and knowing. By centralizing earnings, saturation, and uptime across projects, Andrew can make economic decisions in real time, something his economics background keeps front of mind.
The Mindset That Wins in DePIN
What makes Andrew stand out isn’t luck, it’s discipline. He looks at every miner like an options trade…
Downside capped at 1x investment, worst case losing hardware cost
Upside uncapped at 20x or more, best case token appreciation and real adoption
That expected value mindset keeps him from chasing hype and instead focuses him on scalable, asymmetric bets.
“If I think something can realistically pay off in 3–4 months, then any upside beyond that is pure optionality. The math doesn’t have to be perfect, because adoption waves and token cycles do the heavy lifting.”
Beyond Earnings: Building a Local Empire
Andrew does not do it alone. He sets up radios at friends’ homes, offering them 25 percent of USD payouts as passive income. One friend made over $7,000 without spending a dime. That community-driven model scales not just hardware, but excitement.
It is more than numbers on a screen. It is about creativity, ownership, and building a micro-empire of decentralized infrastructure, with both financial and social dividends.
Final Takeaway: Conviction Pays
If there is one lesson from Andrew’s story, it is this… DePIN rewards conviction paired with smart tools. Helium Deploy provided the hardware. The DePIN Tracker provided the visibility. Andrew provided the mindset.
From a melted Dogecoin rig to more than $350,000 earned across networks, Andrew proves that the right mix of risk, tools, and conviction can turn miners into more than machines, they become building blocks for the decentralized future.