[sumoboy]

Being paid in HNT crypto to run the device. With a $250 box and the HNT pricing around $15-$20 and on the rise, people were making thousands mining a 100+ coins a month deployed in a half decent location. The buying demand for these miners went through the roof and people were waiting 9-12 months to get one. Easy to buy one now but likely only to mine around 4 coins a month due to halving and price decline. HNT coin is around $1.70 right now.

[cush]

Why does the physical location of the mining rig matter?

[secabeen]

Helium is a "proof-of-coverage" crypto system: "Proof-of-Coverage is a unique work algorithm that uses radio waves to validate Hotspots are providing legitimate wireless coverage."

[jimmySixDOF]

The one thing I like about them is the mapping of Proof of Work onto a thing of value in the real world. I think it's a pretty strange thing of value to have selected and there are better behaviors out there to encourage.

I know someone they interviewed for a job last year and he said they were cashed up with years of runway but I also know they have a very bad rep in the LoRa equipment vendor space based on conversations although moved on to the LTE CBRS innovation band from what I can tell.

[vvanders]

Last I looked into it they locked down the supported hardware pretty aggressively and I could never trace a clear line on how the "proof of coverage" was validated. The physical aspects of radio transmission that are unforgeable are a bit hard to do without dedicated hardware and large distances(ex: time of flight for GPS).

The RF nerd in me thinks it could be interesting but the skeptic makes me wonder how forgeable coverage would be and if the overhead of coverage challenges uses more of the limited spectrum than carrying actual data.

[r1ch]

It's kind of a joke, the entire thing is relying on the locked down hardware as it contains the keys that generate coins. You can set up your own mini network that only sees / validates your own nodes and get rewarded. The solution they came up with is a CSV of "bad" nodes. No joke.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helium/denylist/main/denyl...

Helium has been paraded around as a successful use of blockchain when it's highly centralized and has no actual customers.

[sumoboy]

The more people that see you, better chance your miner is involved with proof of coverage to get a mining reward. It's still just a radio wave so "line of site" improves everything.

Visit https://explorer.helium.com/ You can visually see the miners and activity.

[cush]

Woah this seems actually useful, unlike most other crypto endeavors

[rchaud]

There are lots of Helium rigs in NYC, so the reward pool is smaller than it would be in places like Utah.