Helium would be so cool if it wasn't crypto-based and used BT instead of LoRa, and was more focused on being local-first. They're doing some pretty amazing stu

Helium would be so cool if it wasn't crypto-based and used BT instead of LoRa, and was more focused on being local-first. They're doing some pretty amazing stuff as is, but Sidewalk/Tile/AirTags/YoSmart are doing it without crypto, and with small enough bandwidth to work via mobile. I'd much rather have a centralized but selfhostable system, where you choose what network(s) to be a part of, and payments or lack thereof is up to them. They'd have a real chance of building a very large network if they had hardware partners. Ideally, this stuff should be "too cheap to meter" anyway, and could even be ad supported, at least for very low bandwidth best effort stuff.