The Economics of Helium With the upcoming MOBILE network integration, the Helium community has an important vote to determine how to distribute HNT rewards between the networks. This article discusses Helium’s upcoming economics structure and compares the two proposals, HIP-80 and HIP-81, to help the average user understand their differences. How Helium Distributes HNT Now Currently, the Helium Network mints 82 thousand HNT tokens daily. Of that, roughly 50,000 HNT is distributed to hotspot owners for their participation in Proof of Coverage on the IOT network. But changes are on the horizon. Helium’s long-term vision is to become a “Network of Networks,” which requires establishing a fair way to allocate HNT rewards among the subDAOs (IoT or MOBILE currently). HIP-80 and HIP-81 are two competing HIPs that address this issue. Both proposals aim to determine how the HNT rewards will be split between the original IOT subDAO and future ones…
SeedStudio reached out for me to look over their miner, the M1, and do some testing to provide feedback on the unit and determine the best methods to increase earnings. Spec-wise, most Helium Miners are similar, but I was pleasantly surprised at the things SeedStudio did to their hardware to separate themselves from the competition. So without further adieu, let us look at the Seedbox M1. SenseCap M1’s Hardware: A Reference Design With Thoughtful Engineering From a bird’s eye perspective, most Helium Miners operate similarly. The vast majority utilize a reference Raspberry Pi 3+ coupled with a LORA concentrator card. Helium’s reference software is then loaded onto the hardware so that it can participate with the Helium network and contribute to the blockchain. Some manufacturers offer a built-in web server so that you can check its status or do various other administrative things. Seedbox’s M1 accomplishes these tasks without issue…
Over the past few months, HNTnews has covered some simple actions that an investor can do to improve their miner’s range. However, in many cases finding out how these efforts will increase their range has been difficult. That’s left many investors in the dark about whether spending money on their miner setup will have an impact on their earnings.However, thanks to a tool from CloudRf.com, a lot of the guesswork can be eliminated. The tool uses GIS mapping data and imaging LIDAR from satellites to create a 3d map of the world, which can then be used to determine how your Helium Miner’s signal will propagate based on some variables you input into the tool. UPDATE: Changes to Free Plan Unfortunately, the CloudRF team has significantly reduced the limits of the free plan to a maximum of 500MHZ after this guide was written. This has an impact on Helium because…
Hi! I’ve noticed that there are a lot of new folks joining the Helium Network and I think that’s awesome!! The quicker Helium grows to cover the world in coverage – the faster manufacturers, businesses, and tinkers will adopt the network for their designs. IoT is a huge industry that is rapidly growing and the Helium Network will fill the niche between high-cost cellular networks and low coverage Wifi. The key to Helium’s success though is for it to blanket the globe with high-quality RF coverage, and that can only happen if we all band together and build a resilient network using proper RF hardware and procedures. Over the past few months, I have taken to the road to audit the network, by determining coverage of the miners, finding POC exploiters, and determining the best antenna practices for maximum coverage. Unfortunately, during my time doing this research I’ve found that…
A comparison between the Helium and Match X crypto networks.
What is the Helium Network? The Helium Network is a blockchain-based communication network. HNT is the crypto-currency built to facilitate this network and it’s construction which will help to connect the billions of IOT devices that are being deployed around the world. These devices need access to a long-range, low power, and inexpensive network to communicate with their users. How Is Helium Different Than Other Wireless Networks? Communications Networks are nothing new, in fact, they have been around for over 100 years — from the old Telegram networks built to transmit Morse Code over copper wire to the ultra-fast 5G networks Big Telco’s are deploying today. Despite the huge increases in speed and bandwidth, modern networks are all centralized using the “top-down” approach to the infrastructure that serves their content. The networks use highly controlled, centralized radio equipment that they themselves own. The maintenance of the network and what types…
I want to share with you some tips on antenna placement that may help you out when building your system. So if you want to learn more stay tuned, I plan on making a write-up on that next.
Bad actors possibly numbering in the hundreds have falsely asserted their locations so that they can steal money from legitimate miners and users. It’s a relatively simple hack that anyone can do and unfortunately may become a serious problem as the network grows
Hi, I’m a blogger and Engineer who has recently started dabbling in the Helium Network. I plan on documenting my experiences, successes (and failures), and insights on this technology. Please join me!!