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.
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.
- Xi'an, China2016
Officials stuffed cotton into air monitors 28 times; seven were jailed in 2017.
Caixin, 29 Jan 2018 ↗court record - Hunan, China2018
Workers sprayed mist cannons near monitoring stations during smog, per a provincial notice.
Caixin, 2 Feb 2018 ↗reported allegation - 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 2025 ↗reported allegation - 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 2025 ↗reported allegation - 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 2025 ↗reported allegation - Supreme Court of India17 Nov 2025
Asked the Delhi government to explain its AQI equipment and how accurate it is.
The Leaflet ↗court inquiry - 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 2025 ↗survey
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.
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:
- Spray water
- Switch it off
- Stuff it with cotton
- Move it somewhere clean
- Drop the data
Every one of them works because nobody else is watching.
Signed at the source
Each node holds its own key and signs every reading on the sensor itself. Here is the latest reading from bkc-01.prananet.eth, a real board at our venue, exactly as it was signed:
Not even the server that carries the data can change it.
Full breakdown of the 264 signed bytes: open this record.
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. Neighbours and the official station check each other. 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, 112.6 µg/m³ (gold eye, via OpenAQ). Simulated neighbours are labelled (sim).
Proof of honest work
Honest readings earn; three flags and the stake is gone. The real run:
bkc-02 reads 33.0 µg/m³, in line with its neighbours.
Cheaters pay the honest.
Check it yourself
These rows were just fetched by your browser, straight from Arkiv, not from our server. Only entities written by the relayer's wallet (0x3a1f…ca67) count. Press verify and your browser recovers each signer itself.
You don't have to trust us, or anyone.
Who pays for honest air
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.
Start local, go global
- Now
BKC, Mumbai: live now
2 real nodes and 5 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.
When anyone can run the meter, nobody can own the truth.
The Watcher and the builder walk together: one runs the meter, the other pays for honest air.