What is Helium (HNT)? Everything you need to know about the blockchain project

Main

• Helium is a decentralized wireless network built using blockchain. Provides Internet access to various “smart” devices. The project offers a cheaper and more stable alternative to traditional wireless networks, satellite equipment and mobile Internet.
• The Helium network consists of several hundred thousand devices around the world, which are wireless access points and are united in the “People’s Network” (The People’s Network).
• The Internet network is integrated with the Helium blockchain and its native HNT cryptocurrency, which is necessary to pay for data transfer work and to encourage access point owners. Some of The People’s Network devices are also validator nodes.

Who created Helium?

Helium Systems, founded in 2013 in San Francisco (USA) by Sean Fanning, Amir Halim and Sean Carey, is responsible for the project. The initial goal of the startup was to create a global decentralized network for various devices that could exchange small data files with a remote center. Thus, the founders of Helium largely anticipated the spread of the concept of the Internet of Things (Internet of Things, IoT).

Now the company is headed by Amir Halim, other founders have left the company. Another key employee is CTO Mark Niydam, who has over 25 years of experience in large IT companies.

Since its founding, Helium Systems has conducted several rounds of investments and raised funds for a total of about $365 million. The last investment round took place in early 2022, among its participants are Pantera Capital, FTX Ventures and Munich Re Ventures.

What is included in the Helium network?

The wireless network operates on the basis of special modems using Helium LongFi technology. It connects a special LoRaWAN (Long Range wide-area network) wireless communication protocol with the blockchain.

As of May 2022, The People’s Network includes more than 820 thousand access points (one point – one modem), located in more than 62,000 cities and 173 countries. The network adds about 60,000 new outlets every month. Helium has the best coverage in the US urban agglomerations, as well as in Europe and in the east of China.

There is not enough bandwidth on the Helium network to watch videos or play games. However, it provides a reliable Internet channel for devices that regularly transmit small packets of data.

Helium customers are more than 60 companies that develop or actively use devices connected to the Internet. Here are some of the applications that work in ecosystem Helium:

• Awair – devices for monitoring the composition and quality of air.
• Barnacle – parcel trackers.
• CareBand – smart bracelets for tracking the whereabouts of older people with dementia.
• Kooler Smart – cooling room monitoring systems.
• Enica – sensors for plumbing systems.
• Bolero Wireless – devices for loading operations and logistics of commercial vehicles.

Networks can be used in a variety of ways. For example, in April 2022, it became known that using trackers connected to The People’s Network helped a California entrepreneur save money on crabbing.

Since 2021, Helium has been developing the 5G wireless communication standard, a number of companies are implementing projects in this direction. For example, Dish is planning to roll out a 5G mobile network in the US based on The People’s Network.

Helium LongFi provides roaming (transfer of device data from one access point to another) and supports microtransactions for fast payments. Customers only pay for the direct use of the network to transfer their data, with no subscription fees or the need to deploy gateways or network servers.

How does the Helium blockchain work?

The Helium blockchain was launched in the summer of 2019 and has been using a unique Proof-of-Coverage (PoC) consensus algorithm since launch. Access points on The People’s Network are randomly assigned “calls” that require a response from nearby access points. This is to verify that the devices are physically located where they claim to be and actually provide Internet access.

In 2021, to reduce the load on access points, the Helium blockchain was switched to a hybrid model with the addition of a Proof-of-Stake mechanism using the HoneyBadgerBFT consensus algorithm. Dedicated validator nodes have taken on the most costly tasks associated with storing copies of the blockchain and generating its new blocks.

Each block on the Helium network takes 60 seconds to create. Every 30 blocks, a new era begins, and rewards are awarded to access point owners and validators. A group of several participants is randomly selected from the common pool of validators to reach a consensus. The composition of the group is updated every era by 25%.

What is the HNT token for?

Helium (HNT) is a native cryptocurrency of the blockchain of the same name. The asset was released along with the launch of the main network of the project in July 2019.

The supply of HNT is limited to 223 million coins. Initially, the issuance rate was 5 million HNT per month, but since August 1, 2021, it has been halved to 2.5 million HNT per month. Going forward, the emission rate will be halved every two years, and all HNT will be mined in 2070.

HNT tokens have several use cases:

• staking;
• payment of rewards to owners of access points and validators;
• issuance of Data Credits.

The latter are required to pay commissions for using The People’s Network. Their price is fixed and is $0.00001 per “credit”. You can buy Data Credits with fiat money or by burning HNT.

How to mine HNT?

To become a member of The People’s Network, you need to purchase a modem that supports the Helium LongFi protocol, connect it to the Internet and connect it to other access points and client IoT devices. Depending on the model, the devices can be placed indoors or outdoors.

Due to the growing load from the blockchain, Helium access points began to overload and disconnect from the network. In response to this, in the spring of 2022, developers introduced Light Hotspot technology. In fact, this is an analogue of a light client that can transfer data over The People’s Network, but does not participate in blockchain synchronization – this is done by validators. While Light Hotspot is being tested and not implemented in the main network protocol.

On the Helium official website presented a list of 26 manufacturers and distributors from which you can purchase devices using the LoRaWAN protocol. The average cost of one “home” modem is several hundred dollars.

To ensure continuous coverage, Helium offers a set of incentives to create regions with a high density of hotspots. Access point owners’ rewards can increase or decrease depending on various factors, such as the number of neighboring access points, the number of devices connected to the modem, or the amount of data transferred.

Exist online calculators, which help to calculate the HNT mining income for the planned access point. You can also see the profitability of a single point in block explorer Helium.

How else to earn HNT?

Large HNT holders can run a Helium blockchain validator node and receive rewards for their work. The minimum stake for a validator is 10,000 HNT (about $80,000 at the end of May 2022). You can take the coins back from the stake after about 5 months.

The ability to quickly launch validator nodes on the Helium network is provided by Coinbase Cloud and a number of other cloud services. In May 2022, the Helium network had over 3600 validator nodes, which collectively used more than 36% of the HNT coins in circulation for staking. The effective rate of return for staking is 5.25% per annum. Reward payments to validators take place every epoch, that is, once every 30 minutes.

How is Helium developing?

The project developers plan to focus on the development of the 5G direction using the blockchain in cooperation with the company FreedomFi. She, in particular, develops 5G stations with the ability to mine cryptocurrency. The minimum cost of one device is $1000.

Owners of such hybrid access points will be able to earn HNT by providing users with access to mobile communications and the Internet. The goal of the project is to create a global 5G network, which will belong not to one operator company, but to the users themselves. At launch, the Helium 5G network will only be available in select US cities.