Authored by: @hetty-rowan

Chemistry

Helium is a colorless and odorless noble gas and has an extremely low boiling point (4.2 K), the lowest of all elements. It is chemically inert in most conditions. It is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. But did you know that Helium is also a crypto coin that was founded in 2019, and that the price was 0.22 cents when it was founded? Now that is some chemistry, right?

Today, 1 Helium (HNT) is much more expensive to buy. Where does the success come from? I thought it would be a good idea to take a closer look at the project Helim (HNT) today. I have been looking at this coin since a while now because this coin is easy to mine.

That is to say, there are a number of things you need to take into account to maximize your hotspot mining. But anyone who can afford around $400 / $500 can basically mine with an HNT hotspot. Not entirely unimportant is how many hotspots are active in your area. I'll come back to that later… but first let's take a look at what Helium is. And then from the crypto perspective!

Passive Income Generation

It is a well-known fact that it has become increasingly difficult to live on your savings these days. The interest is below 1% in most cases, and if you exceed a certain amount of savings you have to pay interest in many cases! This has caused a shift in thinking, and people are increasingly looking for an alternative passive income. The options to generate passive income have become much more within reach via crypto. Mining is popular, but for many people mining crypto is difficult to start due to lack of finances and lack of technical knowledge.

Mining HNT is 100% different from mining Bitcoin. You don't need heavy PC equipment to mine HNT. All you need is a so-called HotSpot. The network is also called 'the people's network', because all these HotSpots of people are connected to each other via the Helium network.

These HotSpots come into contact with various other hotspots, sensors and machines. And this entire chain provides The Internet of Things (IoT), and is focused on data communication. By participating, you will receive tokens of Helium, the HNT, as a reward.

Now that we know that we need to put a HotSpot on a network for mining, it is also useful to take a look at the project itself. For what is it, and what does it do, and what does it want?

What is Helium?

Helium is an internet provider. However, the difference with most providers is that Helium is decentralized and uses blockchain technology. In addition, most provide WiFi for its customers, while Helium focuses on LongFi. Thanks in part to the Internet of Things (IoT), the Helium network is connected to devices that use the LoRaWAN network. With the launch of the mainnet in 2019, it has become possible for devices to connect and communicate with each other.

Where Helium sets itself apart from other digital coins is the ability to earn Helium. This is possible by mining HNT, the token of Helium. Mining requires a relatively small investment and you do not need to have very in-depth knowledge. If you have plans to mine crypto, but have no knowledge about it, mining HNT could be for you.

You need a hotspot to mine HNT. By making your hotspot available on the Helium network, you ensure wireless coverage of a network consisting of thousands of devices. In large cities, this number can even reach millions of devices. This is because hotspots have the ability to cover a network of several kilometers.

What Problems Does Helium Solve?

Due to the ever-growing network of Helium, more and more devices are connected to each other. As a result, global communication is getting better and better, so that the Helium network can solve a lot of problems in a quick and clear way. Below you can see some problem-solving examples.

Smart farming

Thanks to Helium, 'smart agriculture' can develop further. With cheap and trusted coverage through hundreds of devices, problems within agriculture can be quickly traced. This is made possible by Helium in several ways.

For example, the Helium network ensures that the agricultural environment can be monitored remotely. This ensures, among other things, the quality of the irrigation, the temperature and the conditions in greenhouses, so that people are better informed and better decisions are made in order to optimize production.

Because sensors report the data, there will be less wastage. Problems related to the weather or irrigation will be reduced, as will the costs required for it cultivation process. An additional advantage is that future harvests can be better predicted based on the data provided by the network.

Logistics and supply

Another benefit for the food sector is the security that Helium provides. The dispatch of the products or expensive machines can be easily tracked. In addition, the network provides security for the relevant location and the livestock at a livestock farm. This ensures that no livestock is unnecessarily lost and costs are also saved on the entire process.

Due to the many sensors, Helium makes it possible to improve the supply in a reliable way. Vehicles and stocks, among other things, can be followed directly, which also applies to the entire process of the products and machines concerned. This makes theft more difficult and it quickly becomes clear where mistakes are made. By reducing errors, costs are reduced, because, for example, less loss takes place.

Smart cities

Helium provides solutions for cities by ensuring public safety. In the future, cities will increasingly work with data, with Smart Cities being a more familiar term for it in English. This development will allow for better management of energy and resources, which should result in a higher quality of life for the inhabitants. In addition, this development will also ensure that a lot of costs can be saved.

Among other things, the air quality in cities is monitored by the Helium network. Both indoors and outdoors, Helium offers the possibility to closely monitor the air quality. In the event of a major problem in this area, authorities can act quickly and a disaster can be prevented.

In addition to preventing air quality problems, Helium also prevents major water and gas leaks. Thanks to the technology, parties can be informed quickly if a leakage or gas leak occurs. This can also have a positive effect on the water and gas bills, because a lot of costs can be avoided.

The Helium network will also change a lot in the field of parking management. Due to the large number of devices that are in contact with each other, drivers will be informed in time about available parking spaces. This reduces traffic jams and solves parking problems as efficiently as possible. An additional advantage is that fewer emissions will take place, so that the environment also benefits from this development.

Monitoring the environment

Environmental events can also be quickly detected with the Helium network. This includes the aforementioned air quality, but water quality is also an important part of the environment. By detecting problems concerning these necessities at an early stage, human lives can be saved thanks to the network.

Thanks to the detailed technology, water management can be monitored even better by utilities. Utilities are companies that supply gas, water or electricity. This increases the control of water consumption and the quality of water, which results in safer conditions in terms of drinking water, for example. Especially in countries where the quality of drinking water is very low, Helium can offer good help.

Earthquakes, hurricanes or forest fires can also be mapped more quickly, so that action can be taken very quickly and the consequences of natural disasters are limited. As a result, after a natural disaster, less time and money will be needed to restore homes or infrastructure. Due to weather conditions becoming more and more extreme, the network could become very important in the future.

How do you mine Helium?

By offering hotspots, miners can earn HNT. The HNT tokens are earned in different ways. Helium rewards the Proof-of-Coverage (PoC), where hotspots are subject to PoC testing both automatically and randomly. Both passing the test and witnessing a test (by another hotspot) yields HNT. In addition, the hotspot also earns HNT when delivering data.

To participate in the PoC, it is important that several hotspots in the area are active within the Helium network. The hotspots must be at least 300 meters apart, but they must also not be too far from each other. However, the maximum amount is several kilometers, the exact amount depends on the environment. And here you are dealing with a thing that is beyond your control. Because in many environments there are simply no other HotSpots available. The coverage ratio of these HotSpots is still very low. I have looked for ourselves if it is an opportunity to generate passive income with this, and at the moment I am leaning towards "I want to start with this", so I'm definitely going to investigate this even better how I can best approach this to achieve optimal results.

The more activity in your area, the more passive income your hotspot can generate. You can also stimulate this yourself by adding an antenna to your hotspot. An antenna ensures that your range increases, so that you can perform more tasks on the network.

What does a Helium miner cost?

To be able to mine, you will first have to make an investment in advance. Depending on the type of hotspot, you can start mining for a few hundred dollars.

Besides the hotspot itself you can also buy an antenna, this will increase the reward for mining. An antenna costs about a few tens to several hundred euros, this amount depends on the size of the antenna. In addition to the purchase costs, you will also have to deal with electricity costs.

You can find more information about this on the Helium Website. And here you will also find the links to the sellers to purchase a HotSpot for yourself. And not unimportantly, you can see if, and how many other HotSpots can be found in your area, and what's nice ... you can see the earnings that those HotSpots have achieved in the past 24 hours, the past week, and the past 30 days!

For example, I saw that someone in my hometown has earned 49 HNT with his HotSpot in the past month. That HotSpot has already more than doubled its investment in a month. And that's something that makes me think even more that I should do this too. Time will tell…

The Token of Helium: HNT

It is possible to use the Helium token for various purposes. For example, HNT is used as a profit distribution for miners on the network. It is also possible to stake HNT. It is remarkable that the annual reward decreases as the staking of HNT increases.

The token is also interesting for investors who believe in the project. This speculative goal is based on trust in the team and the project, but the halving of the mining also counts. As with Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC), Helium uses halvings, where the reward for mining is halved.

In the early years of the project, a maximum of 5 million HNT per month could be mined. This monthly amount has halved after the last halving, allowing a maximum of 2.5 million HNT to be mined per month. The first halving of Helium took place on August 1, 2021 and will occur every two years going forward.

On the network, data credits are used for the transaction costs of the blockchain. These credits are obtained by users converting HNT into data credits. As a result, HNT tokens disappear from circulation, which in the crypto world is called the burning of tokens. The price of data credits is fixed, 1 data credit has a value of 0.00001 US Dollar.

Most trading platforms have HNT in their range.

HNT can also be stored on a hardware wallet in addition to the exchange. This is of course preferable to saving on the exchange. But hey, everyone here knows that. Not your keys, not your crypto.

The Helium team

The Helium team started the project in 2013. As a Dutch person I may emphasize something here. LOL. The team has a Dutch touch, because the CTO of the project - Marc Nijdam - comes from the Netherlands. With 25 years of experience in technology, Helium has an experienced CTO in-house. Past work has included conducting research for Hewlett-Packard and leading teams across several Qualcomm products and services.

Another experienced craftsman on the team is one of the founders of Helium, who is currently still the CEO. His name is Amir Haleem and is known for his contribution to the popular game Battlefield 1942 and his activity around e-sports. The COO of the project also has enormous experience in technology. Frank Mong is COO at Helium and was previously active in online security.

Roadmap

Helium has made a roadmap for the entire year. This includes what the plans are for the second half of the year. The biggest future plans for Helium in the last months of 2021 are 5G and strike. It is now already possible to become a validator of the network and to discontinue your HNT.

In addition, the project also focuses more on 5G. There are already 5G hotspots that are accepted by the network, but Helium wants to expand this. The solutions that Helium offers are becoming more and more possible through 5G. A big step for this development is the partnership that Helium has entered into with FreedomFi.

The Popularity of Helium

Helium is very active on social media, communicating with investors and miners through multiple channels. The reach of these channels is very high, the project has thousands of followers on every social media platform. Most people are reached via Twitter and Reddit, where Helium has 90,000 and 58,000 followers respectively.

Critical note

Every project has its flaws and Helium is no exception. For example, there are critical notes about mining. To be able to mine you first have to make an investment, to generate tokens. If you do not optimize your miner or your location does not promote mining, there is a possibility that mining will not be profitable in the short term.

Conclusion

In my opinion, it is a good project, it is well put together and has great goals that they are pursuing. It has a good use case, and could become very important in the coming years. Farmers can certainly use techniques, the fight against the climate and the associated changes can certainly also use support. And Helium responds to this with this advanced technology. In addition, decentralized internet is a good development.

The disadvantages are more in the area for the HNT miners due to a very limited edition and distribution of the HotSpots. The demand is greater than the supply. Demand is only increasing, and supply is lagging. Add to that the fact that in the future less and less can be earned ...

However, that is not an issue at the moment, it is still early enough in the project at the moment.

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