Distributed wireless infrastructure is very real and a pretty clear use case of web3. Helium Network sells wireless routers, and distributes rewards to routers

Distributed wireless infrastructure is very real and a pretty clear use case of web3. Helium Network sells wireless routers, and distributes rewards to routers that provide coverage to the network. Tokens are used to purchase network bandwidth. They have nearly 400K hotspots worldwide. It's also not using the energy-intensive Proof of Work consensus algorithm that you're referring to.