The air doesn't lie. The readings can.
PranaNet is a network of honest air sensors that anyone can run, check and get paid for.
I · It's happened before
Delhi, winter 2025. I watched people's home sensors show far worse air than the official numbers, while officials were accused of spraying water around the monitoring stations. Nobody could say which number to believe.
Spray it, switch it off, stuff it with cotton: when one party owns the meter, the number is whatever they need it to be.
It doesn't matter who holds power. The people being measured shouldn't be the only ones holding the meter.
- Xi'an, China2016
Officials stuffed cotton into air monitors 28 times; seven were jailed in 2017.
Caixin, 29 Jan 2018court recordRead the source → - Hunan, China2018
Workers sprayed mist cannons near monitoring stations during smog, per a provincial notice.
Caixin, 2 Feb 2018official noticeRead the source → - DelhiOct 2025
After a water-sprinkler video at the Anand Vihar monitor, reporters found the ground still wet and the air still toxic.
Newslaundry, 27 Oct 2025reported allegationRead the source → - DelhiDiwali 2025
163 hours of peak-period AQI data were lost, against 34 hours the year before.
The Straits Times via The Star, 2 Dec 2025news reportRead the source → - DelhiNov 2025
A reporter watched a sprinkler truck repeatedly spray around the Jahangirpuri station; officials called the charges politically motivated and said sprinkling is citywide.
The Straits Times via The Star, 2 Dec 2025reported allegationRead the source → - Supreme Court of India17 Nov 2025
Asked the Delhi government to explain its AQI equipment and how accurate it is.
The Leafletcourt inquiryRead the source → - Survey, Delhi regionOct 2025
87% of residents in and around Delhi had little or no trust in official air data.
The Straits Times via The Star, 2 Dec 2025surveyRead the source →
II · Why tampering works
An official station is one meter with one owner. If the owner wants a better number, there are plenty of ways to get one, and every one of them works because nobody else is watching.
Try each one on a PranaNet node. Tap a card to see what happens.
III · Signed at the source
The ESP32 on each node signs every reading with its own key before it leaves the board. Below is the latest one from our sensor at BKC. Change a single digit and your browser rejects it.
Not even the server that carries the data can change it.
The latest reading from bkc-sim-01.sim.prananet.eth (simulated), exactly as it was signed:
Full breakdown of the 264 signed bytes: open this record.
IV · A democracy of honest nodes
Anyone can run a node: a home, a school, a housing society. One human, one voice: World ID proves you're a unique person without revealing who, and each person can run at most 3 nodes, so nobody can fake a crowd.
Below are the nodes at BKC right now. Put yours in the middle and try to fool them.
Try to cheat
Rule: flagged if more than 50% and more than 25 µg/m³ away from the neighbourhood median. Official reference: Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai - MPCB, 54.4 µg/m³ (gold eye, via OpenAQ). Simulated neighbours are labelled (sim).
V · Proof of honest work
A signed reading that agrees with its neighbours is a unit of honest work and earns from the reward pool. Every node stakes a deposit. Three flags in a row and it's slashed.
On Friday evening we put a tissue over bkc-02's sensor to see what would happen. Scroll to replay it.
bkc-02 reads 33.0 µg/m³, in line with its neighbours.
Cheaters pay the honest.
VI · Check it yourself
Every reading is stored on Arkiv. The table below comes straight from Arkiv into your browser, without passing through our server. Press verify on any row.
Fetched just now by your browser. Only entries written by the relayer's wallet (0x3a1f…ca67) count, because anyone can write look-alikes.
You don't have to trust us, or anyone.
VII · Who pays for honest air
Construction sites in Mumbai already have to monitor their dust, which makes them the first people who would pay for readings that come with proof, along with regulators and apps. That money goes to the people running the nodes. There is no token.
Customers buy verified data, not raw readings: a cross-checked value with the signatures behind it.
- Buildersprove dust compliance at their sites
- Regulatorsaudit without sending inspectors
- Appsshow air people can trust
- Researchersget signed, timestamped history
- AI agentspay per request over x402
No token. Rewards come from revenue.
A real agent payment
- 1Agent asksGET /api/aqi → 402 Payment Required
- 2Pays0.1 HBAR on Hedera HashScan ↗
- 3Loggedpurchase written to an HCS topic topic ↗
- 4Bridgedrevenue → RewardPool.fundPool on Sepolia Etherscan ↗
- 5Earnedhonest node claims 0.00034 ETH claimRewards ↗
Try it: the API advertises itself at /.well-known/x402.
VIII · Start local, go global
Today it's a handful of nodes at one venue in BKC. Mumbai's construction sites come next, then Delhi, where this started.
- Now
BKC, Mumbai: live now
0 real nodes and 4 labelled simulated neighbours, cross-checked against the official station.
- Next
Mumbai's 3,166 construction sites
Dust monitoring there is already mandatory, so there are paying customers on day one.
- Then
Delhi NCR, where this started
The city where the readings stopped being believed.
- Everywhere
Any city with a dispute about its air
China, Delhi and others show the problem is everywhere.
IX · Nobody owns the truth
When anyone can run the meter, nobody can own the truth.
The Watcher runs the meter. The builder pays for honest air. Neither of them can fake it.