The largest IoT blockchain in the world? The Helium Network (HNT) takes off
6 min readTable of Contents
Helium Network (HNT), also known as “The People’s Network”, is now the largest blockchain application for the Internet of Things (IoT) – how can an investor benefit from it?
Decentralized Internet for everyone – that’s exactly what Helium Network wants to make possible worldwide. The price of the ambitious crypto project has increased by over 140 percent in the last 30 days. Currently, HNT is trading just below the $ 50 mark.
An important factor that ensured that HNT was able to almost double its course within a few days is likely due to a new partnership of the project. The team behind Helium Network recently announced that it is now with the help of the company, in addition to its hotspots already spread all over the world Dish Want to offer 5G-enabled hotspots.
What is the helium network?
Helium is a decentralized blockchain network for IoT devices. Amir Haleem, Shawn Fanning and Sean Carey founded the project back in year 2013. The Helium team is building a wireless IoT network that will enable devices (such as smartphones, e-scooters and smart TVs) all over the world to wirelessly connect to the Internet without having to purchase an expensive cell phone plan .
The HNT token is at the center of Helium’s decentralized blockchain network. This can be used for payments and for governance votes within the network. As a result, Helium has created a two-sided market for providers and users who need an Internet connection for their IoT devices. The project aims to completely decentralize a market that is currently controlled by monopolies.
Wireless internet connection is set to become a competitive fuel and available anywhere in the world at a fraction of the current cost. In this ambitious mission, helium is used by well-known venture capital– Companies supported, including Khosla Ventures, FirstMark Capital, GV (formerly Google Ventures), HSB / MunichRe Ventures and others.
This is how the helium network works
Helium wants to use various hotspots around the world and use them to build a decentralized Internet, as far as the plan. Everyone has the opportunity to join this network by turning their Internet connection into a hotspot of the Helium network. Users can easily set up a Helium mini router in their own apartment and make the internet available for other IoT devices. Verified IoT devices can then access the connections, for example, or data that is of interest to certain groups can be tracked. So can for example the e-scooters from Lime, who are also partners of Helium, access these hotspots in order to save costs.
The entire system behind it is open source and anyone can join the network voluntarily. Both end users and companies can buy HNT hotspots and operate them independently. In addition, the blockchain technology has, by means of the helium consensus algorithm, which Proof of coverage calls, so far guaranteed that both the data from providers and users are safe.
How realistic is the goal?
Helium has seen tremendous growth in recent years and is now present in over 25,000 cities around the world. The Helium Network is particularly popular at the moment, especially in Europe, the USA and China.
In addition, there have been no major incidents or data leaks caused by the HNT Network were indebted. The project has therefore enjoyed a high reputation in the crypto community for several years.
In addition, the growth of the entire project is still exponential. At the beginning of May 2021 there were only 32,000 helium hotspots worldwide. This number now amounts to over 300,000 hotspots.
This makes the Helium Network the largest blockchain network for IoT applications in the entire world. Increasingly stronger network effects and new collaborations with 5G providers such as Dish should ensure that this will not change anytime soon.
This is how you can earn HNT tokens too
The helium network rewards all those who provide Internet for IoT devices via a so-called helium hotspot with HNT tokens. These hotspots are physical devices that are needed for HNT mining and the transfer of data over the network. But why is the HNT token valuable at all?
The HNT token is required to carry out transactions in the helium network. In addition, companies that want to use the data from hotspots must buy HNT and then destroy it. This reduces the overall offer of all HNTs and in return the companies receive so-called data credits. They can use these to pay for access to data.
After there was an extreme shortage of HNT hotspots at the beginning of May, the helium community has now decided that third-party providers may now also produce hotspots for the helium network. Within a few months this has resulted in a large number of helium hotspots.
A list of all hotspot manufacturers confirmed by the community can be found on the official website of helium.
However, despite the arrival of many new hotspot manufacturers, the devices are still extremely popular. Many manufacturers therefore have relatively long delivery times (6-12 weeks) and the prices for a single HNT hotspot range from 400 to 1000 euros. on Ebay some models even sell for 1,500 euros.
How lucrative are helium hotspots?
Making money from HNT hotspots can still be extremely profitable. How much you earn, however, depends very much on where you set up your hotspot.
On the one hand, it is important to set up your HNT hotspot within the range of other hotspots. On the other hand, you have to make sure that you are not surrounded by too many other hotspots.
At the beginning of May 2021, a helium hotspot located in Berlin-Mitte generated between 2,000 and 3,000 US dollars per month. Due to the enormous growth of the HNT network in Berlin, the same hotspot now only generates 200 to 300 US dollars a month. So the return has dropped significantly, but with an initial investment of $ 400 to $ 1000 you would still have your investment back after a few months.
In comparison, medium-sized cities in particular have become interesting because there are already some HNT hotspots there, but the market is not so flooded.
If you want to find out how profitable helium mining can be in the respective regions, you should take a look at the Helium Explorer map. On this map you can see in which areas there are already HNT hotspots and, after the individual hotspot has been selected, details about its income can be displayed.
Conclusion
As early as May 2021 we could see the exponential growth of the helium network. The number of hotspots has increased tenfold since then. Within the last 30 days alone are over 70,000 new hotspots went online.
The exponential growth of the project does not seem to be over yet. The number of newly established HNT hotspots increases with each passing day and at the same time an ever increasing network effect ensures that it is worthwhile to set up a hotspot in more and more locations.
Although Helium Network is now represented in all major European and US cities, there is still great potential for growth in a large number of medium-sized and small cities.
In addition, developing countries such as South America, Africa and Southeast Asia still offer great growth potential for the entire HNT network. Since many HNT hotspot producers started producing HNT hotspots on a large scale only a few months ago, it is likely that demand in these regions can also be satisfied in the coming months.
