Neuron is building a decentralized service network on Hedera that lets autonomous devices such as drones, sensors and AI agents discover one another and settle payments directly, part of a decentralized physical infrastructure sector some analysts project could reach 3.5 trillion dollars by 2028.

Neuron, a decentralized physical infrastructure company, has built a service network on Hedera that allows autonomous devices to discover each other, exchange data and settle payments directly, without a central intermediary. The company reports more than 40 million network transactions to date, and expects to track 2.7 billion service delivery segments during 2026.

The project sits within a category known as DePIN, or decentralized physical infrastructure networks, in which real-world hardware is contributed and operated by many independent participants rather than a single company. The model has drawn growing attention as connected devices multiply and the cost of coordinating them through centralized systems rises. Analysts cited in Hedera's case study project the broader DePIN market could reach 3.5 trillion dollars by 2028.

Machine-to-machine commerce has faced persistent obstacles: high transaction costs, security vulnerabilities, limited scalability and a lack of trust between devices. Centralized systems create bottlenecks, while many blockchain networks are too slow or too expensive to support the volume of micropayments that billions of connected devices would generate. Neuron's decentralized service network, or DSN, is designed to address that gap by giving devices a decentralized identity, micropayment capability and verifiable data exchange.

In practice, a device that needs a service locates another device offering it on the network, agrees terms, and settles payment automatically. A delivery drone planning a route, for example, can request airspace or sensor data from other participants and pay a small amount for each source it uses, with the operator of that sensor compensated automatically and the record written to the ledger.

Neuron began by addressing a specific problem in the drone industry: the absence of infrastructure for tracking drones in low-altitude, congested airspace, which traditional systems designed for high-altitude aircraft do not serve well. Its 4D Sky network demonstrated that distributed ledger technology could manage complex, real-time operations, and was deployed in trials run by the UK government. The company later extended the approach to sectors including food delivery, where the network reduces the commissions charged by traditional platforms, content streaming, where smart contracts manage licensing and subscriptions, and environmental monitoring, where sensor data is recorded immutably.

Neuron selected Hedera for its throughput, low latency, low and predictable transaction fees, and aBFT security, which the company said meets the requirements of military and government drone operations demonstrated in the UK trials. "We believe the future of services lies in decentralization," said James Dunthorne, Neuron's chief executive. "We're not just building a network, we're building the infrastructure that empowers anyone to create applications that manage any kind of resource, physical assets like drones, digital content like streaming media, or even human resources."

The network's peer-to-peer architecture is designed to remove single points of failure and protect user data while maintaining service continuity. As device counts and machine-driven services grow, Neuron's model offers a template for how autonomous systems might transact at scale, a design other infrastructure operators are likely to watch closely.

From James (CEO) Neuron Discord - from a day ago - and I detect a typical British tone of understatement:

"We should have some significant news next week. In other news, Neuron is one of 5 companies down selected for UK MoD defence targeting web (DTW). https://share.google/twnL0s2yFgwc8bIvp We have been a little quiet recently, but you are about to get hit with some big updates"

It was also mentioned during the week for some reason that the were opening up the sensors to a "larger range of aircraft than usual" for a while, probably for testing purposes... Was it associated with Project Diana for NATO?

Whatever it was, Western Europe is covered with flights being tracked, except for Southern France for some reason, France generally hasn't been under Neuron's visibility for some reason... but gee, something is well afoot in Neuron land and it's all result-based.

Attached is a screenie from 4DSky sensor map just now.

To everyone in the American community, Happy 4th of July🇺🇸

Here's to celebrating freedom-and to building financial systems that are more open, accessible, and available to everyone, everywhere on Hedera.

Hedera

is being used to track carbon credits and supply chains through two main tools: Hedera Guardian, which digitizes and verifies carbon credit issuance for registries like Verra and BCarbon, and TrackTrace, a platform built by The Hashgraph Group that records product origin, emissions, and compliance data for the European Union's Digital Product Passport rules. Both tools run on Hedera's public ledger, which uses a consensus method called hashgraph instead of a traditional blockchain structure. This lets companies record data that cannot be altered after the fact, while keeping transaction costs low and settlement fast.

The result is a shared record of where a carbon credit or a physical product came from, who verified it, and what happened to it next. That record is open for anyone to check, which is the core problem these tools are trying to solve.

Why Do Carbon Markets Need Blockchain Tracking?

Carbon credits represent a tonne of greenhouse gas that was either avoided or removed from the atmosphere. The trouble is that credits have historically been tracked through spreadsheets, PDFs, and registry databases that do not talk to each other. This has left the market open to double counting, where the same credit is sold or claimed more than once, and to inflated claims about how much carbon a project actually removed.

Hedera Guardian addresses this by acting as an open-source governance layer for environmental asset data. It automates measurement, reporting, and verification, a process the industry calls MRV, and ties each digital carbon credit to a specific, auditable methodology. According to Hedera, the Guardian ecosystem has built the largest open-source library of digitized carbon methodologies in the world.

Verra's Integration With Hedera Guardian

Verra, one of the largest carbon credit standards bodies, announced a long-term collaboration with the Hedera Foundation to connect Hedera Guardian directly to its Verra Project Hub. Mandy Rambharos, CEO of Verra, described the partnership as a step forward in the organization's digitalization strategy, aimed at making project registration, verification, and credit issuance faster and more transparent.

The integration gives project developers real-time access to methodology updates and lets reviewers search and analyze submission data while keeping proponent confidentiality intact.

How Are Real Carbon Registries Using Hedera Right Now?

Several registries and project developers have already moved live carbon credit data onto Hedera rather than treating it as a pilot exercise.

• BCarbon, a nonprofit registry connected to Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, migrated more than 2 million issued carbon credits onto Hedera in February 2026. The credits span methane abatement through well plugging, soil carbon sequestration, forestry, and blue carbon projects. BCarbon Chief Executive Officer Eric Unverzagt said the move to Hedera combines scientific rigor with digital infrastructure that supports auditable, tradable credits.
• DOVU, working with Veterans Carbon Holdings, issued the first third-party validated soil-sample carbon credits on Hedera, bringing $1.1 billion in assets into DOVU's Digital Asset Warehouse, with $600 million of that directed to American family farms over a nine-year contract.
• Gold Standard and ATEC Global issued the first fully digitized cookstove carbon credits in March 2026, verified through a digital MRV process and made publicly traceable on the Hedera Guardian ledger. The eCook Bangladesh project uses IoT-connected SIM cards on cookstoves to transmit real-time usage data, which is then audited by a third party before Gold Standard approves final issuance. Wes Geisenberger, Executive Director of Sustainability at Hashgraph, noted that digital MRV is expected to shorten issuance timelines that historically took up to two years under manual verification.

Worth noting, dMRV, or digital monitoring, reporting, and verification, replaces manual paperwork with sensor data and automated audit trails. Every credit issued this way can be checked independently through tools like the open-source Hedera Atlas dashboard, without needing to trust a single central party.

How Does Hedera Track Physical Supply Chains?

Carbon credits are one side of Hedera's sustainability use case. The other is tracking physical goods as they move through manufacturing, shipping, and retail. This has become a compliance issue in Europe, not just a nice-to-have feature.

The EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, known as ESPR, came into effect on July 18, 2024, and requires a Digital Product Passport for products sold into the EU market, including imports. The passport is typically accessed through a QR code and must contain data on a product's origin, composition, sustainability credentials, and lifecycle. Battery passport requirements apply to electric vehicle and industrial batteries starting February 18, 2027, with textiles, clothing, and iron and steel products covered from July 2027.

TrackTrace and the Digital Product Passport

The Hashgraph Group built TrackTrace on Hedera specifically to help companies meet these requirements. The platform records supply chain data including product quality, raw material origin, carbon emissions, and responsible sourcing information.

Each product or process gets a decentralized identifier, sometimes called a DID, that stores related records and lets independent auditors verify them without going through a central authority.

TrackTrace is built to work alongside existing enterprise resource planning systems rather than replace them. Micha Roon, Head of Engineering at The Hashgraph Group, said the platform was designed with GDPR compliance built in, so businesses can share required compliance data without exposing sensitive intellectual property or personal information. The architecture also uses Hedera's consensus algorithm to secure records against tampering across borders.

TrackTrace has also been paired with Merck's M-Trust physical authentication technology, letting companies verify product origin, authenticity, quality, and movement together. Thomas Endress, Executive Director of M-Trust at Merck, pointed to a rise in falsified certificates of origin in the cocoa market during 2026 tied to new EU deforestation rules as one reason demand for this kind of verification is growing. TrackTrace is aimed at industries where provenance matters most, including food, pharmaceuticals, electronics, luxury goods, and industrial components.

What Other Companies Are Involved in Hedera's Supply Chain Push?

Hedera's supply chain tools are backed by a governing council rather than a single company. Members relevant to sustainability and logistics work include:

• FedEx, which joined the Hedera Council to support digital infrastructure for global shipments
• Dell, Google, IBM, and Deutsche Telekom, which participate in council governance
• PwC, which provides regulatory compliance support for TrackTrace's Digital Product Passport rollouts

This is not the first time Hedera has been used for supply chain traceability. Medical Value Chain deployed a Hedera-linked pharmaceutical track-and-trace system in Bahrain in 2021, using Hedera Consensus Service to notarize records alongside a permissioned blockchain layer. That earlier deployment focused on patient safety and reducing counterfeit medicine, showing the same traceability model applied outside the carbon and ESG context.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Put together, the carbon and supply chain use cases rely on the same underlying pattern:

• Data is captured close to the source, whether that is an IoT sensor on a cookstove or a scan at a factory
• The data is timestamped and recorded on Hedera's public ledger, which cannot be edited after the fact
• A third party, such as Earthood for carbon credits or PwC for product passports, verifies the data against a set methodology or regulation
• The verified record stays open for auditors, buyers, or regulators to check independently

This is different from older systems where a registry or a customs office held the only copy of the record. On Hedera, the record itself is the shared reference point.

HBAR Price Snapshot

For readers tracking the network's native token, HBAR was

trading at roughly $0.071

as of early July 2026, giving Hedera a market capitalization near $3.12 billion, according to CoinGecko data.

HBAR is used to pay transaction fees on the network, including the fees generated by Guardian and TrackTrace activity, though the tokenomics of HBAR are separate from how the tracking tools themselves function.

Conclusion

Hedera's carbon credit tracking runs through Hedera Guardian, which ties digital MRV data to registries like Verra, BCarbon, and Gold Standard, giving each credit an auditable record from issuance to retirement. Its supply chain tracking runs through TrackTrace, which generates the origin, sourcing, and emissions data required for the EU's Digital Product Passport and links that data to enterprise systems through decentralized identifiers.

Together, these tools give registries, manufacturers, and regulators a shared, tamper-resistant record instead of separate paper trails, which is the specific gap both carbon markets and cross-border supply chains have struggled with.

Resources

1. Press Release by Verra : Verra and Hedera to Accelerate Digital Transformation of Carbon Markets
2. Page by Hedera : Sustainability Use Cases
3. Press Release by Gold Standard : First Fully Digital Cookstove Carbon Credits Issued by Gold Standard and ATEC Global
4. Report by DLT Earth : BCarbon Migrates Carbon Registry to Hedera to Enable Digital Audit Trails
5. Report by Genfinity : Hedera February 2026 Recap: FedEx Joins Council, Davos Leadership, and Carbon Markets Scale to $1.1 Billion
6. Report by Cointelegraph : Hashgraph Group Launches Hedera Tool for EU Digital Product Passports
7. Report by Inside Ecology : The Hashgraph Group Announces the Launch of TrackTrace for Compliance With EU's Digital Product Passport (DPP) Regulation
8. Report by Bitget News : Digital Product Identification Platform Goes Live in the EU on Hedera
9. Blog Post by Hedera : Hedera Consensus Service and MVC Track-and-Trace Platform Now Fully Integrated for Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Compliance and Finance
10. Data by CoinGecko : Hedera (HBAR) Price, Market Cap & News

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Hedera Guardian used for? Hedera Guardian is an open-source platform that digitizes and verifies carbon credits and other environmental assets. It automates monitoring, reporting, and verification against approved methodologies, and connects directly to registries such as Verra's Project Hub.

Is TrackTrace required for companies selling in the EU? Companies exporting regulated products into the EU will need a Digital Product Passport under the ESPR framework, regardless of where the product is manufactured. TrackTrace is one platform, built on Hedera, that companies can use to generate and maintain that passport, but it is not the only compliance option available.

How many carbon credits have been moved onto Hedera? BCarbon alone migrated more than 2 million issued carbon credits onto Hedera in February 2026, and DOVU's soil carbon program has issued credits backed by $1.1 billion in validated assets. These figures cover specific registries and do not represent the entire voluntary carbon market.

source: https://x.com/BSCNews/status/2072936539529847240?s=20

So, a direct competitor to Tether?

Thoughts?

Hedera is set to roll out Block Nodes in September, replacing the cloud-stored Record Files that currently feed wallets, exchanges and dashboards. The shift moves the network to a real-time data feed and reduces reliance on centralized storage.

Hedera is preparing to overhaul the infrastructure that delivers on-chain data to wallets, exchanges and applications, with a transition to Block Nodes expected to go live in September. The change targets a long-standing weakness in how information reaches end users: the prices, balances and marketplace activity displayed across the ecosystem do not come directly from the network, but from an intermediate layer that has been prone to delays and outages.

That layer is the Mirror Node, a service that reads activity on Hedera, processes it, and exposes it through APIs used by wallets, dashboards, bots and trading interfaces. Under the current model, consensus nodes write Record Files to cloud object storage, and Mirror Nodes download and validate those files before serving the data. The design has supported the network for years, but it carries structural limitations that surface as missing token prices, blank balances and lagging charts.

Three problems define the existing setup. The first is a dependency on centralized storage: because data is staged in Record Files held in the cloud, an outage at that storage layer can leave applications without information to display. The second is processing overhead, as Mirror Nodes cannot request only the data they need and instead must download entire files containing large volumes of irrelevant content. The third, a consequence of the first two, is latency. Data can take minutes to propagate, leaving price charts behind the market and delivering sale notifications late.

Block Nodes are designed to address those issues. Rather than relying on file uploads to the cloud, the network pushes activity in real time to Block Nodes through the Block Stream, a unified format that bundles everything occurring in each block. Mirror Nodes then subscribe to a Block Node and receive only the data relevant to them, eliminating the need to ingest unnecessary information.

According to Hedera's documentation, Block Nodes replace the previous record-stream file upload mechanism with a real-time, push-based feed of all network activity, making it available to downstream consumers such as Mirror Nodes, indexers and analytics services. The Block Stream format, standardized under HIP-1056, reduces the size of the data Mirror Nodes must process and lowers ingestion costs.

The expected gains are faster, real-time data delivery, the removal of redundant processing, reduced reliance on centralized storage, and greater scalability across the network. Record Files and cloud storage are not being eliminated; instead, they step back from their role as the primary data path and remain as a backup for emergency scenarios.

The migration is scheduled for September. If deployed as planned, it would mark one of the more significant changes to Hedera's data infrastructure to date, with direct implications for the responsiveness and reliability of the wallets, exchanges and applications that depend on it.