6 ms·

Helium Mobile

14 points by lawrenceyan 4y ago

wslh 4y ago
I understand this initiative is connected with the Solana network [1] somehow? "What’s a Crypto carrier? Glad You Asked" [2] There was a rage about Helium protocol recently. If I remember well it was moving from low speed IoT to mobile [3] and Algorand blockchain key people trying to push Helium to Algorand instead of Solana [4] [1] https://solana.com/ https://solana.com/ [2] https://blog.hellohelium.com/whats-a-cryptocarrier-glad-you-asked/ https://blog.hellohelium.com/whats-a-cryptocarrier-glad-you-... [3] https://decrypt.co/110319/helium-founder-why-crypto-wireless-network-moving-solana https://decrypt.co/110319/helium-founder-why-crypto-wireless... [4] https://github.com/helium/HIP/issues/471 https://github.com/helium/HIP/issues/471
- jki275 4y ago
  The move to Solana is something I hadn't heard of before, and is absolutely par for the course with this project: technically deficient, badly planned, based in hype and bullshit.
joezydeco 4y ago
Is this their third or fourth pivot? I've lost track.
muhammadusman 4y ago
They lost me at “crypto carrier”
- ulfw 4y ago
  rightfully so. Means it'll never actually be a thing.
hlieberman 4y ago
A fool and his money are soon parted.
rufusroflpunch 4y ago
Never trust a project with its own token.
- AustinDev 4y ago
  BTC has it's own token.
  - rocket_surgeron 4y ago
    Precisely.
jimlongton 4y ago
See "The Billion Dollar Network No One Uses" by YouTuber Coffeezilla [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDhU295bUv4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDhU295bUv4
- lawrenceyan 4y ago
  The Internet as we know it today was empty when it first started!
mikeiz404 4y ago
From their blog posts… Helium mobile is a mobile phone carrier which provides coverage via decentralized 5g cell sites. This is unlike traditional cell carriers which either own the cell site infrastructure or rent access to it from an often larger carrier. Participants who host a 5g cell site on the network are rewarded in project specific crypto tokens. Similarly opted in mobile subscribers who verify the cell sites are also rewarded in tokens. [1][2] A coverage map of the IoT network and mobile network (see the menu) can be seen here: https://explorer.helium.com/ https://explorer.helium.com/ And a little more info on the network incentives is talked about in this blog post: https://blog.helium.com/mobile-proof-of-coverage-the-road-ahead-73a25601a13d https://blog.helium.com/mobile-proof-of-coverage-the-road-ah... 1: https://blog.hellohelium.com/you-asked-we-answered/ https://blog.hellohelium.com/you-asked-we-answered/ 2: https://youtu.be/cDhTOiJ1Qtk https://youtu.be/cDhTOiJ1Qtk
- wslh 4y ago
  Do you remember the Fon Wireless endeavor [1]? It failed in the past, it doesn't mean it will fail now and using crypto for rewards seems a good idea in this case to reduce the friction in payment systems. It would be good to analyze more fundamentals. In this case I see crypto as a second success factor. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fon_Wireless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fon_Wireless
woah 4y ago
It’s not easy to place and install cell towers because they need to have good lines of sight to their area of coverage and they require a lot of power and installation expertise. Helium’s “box on your shelf” model where they got thousands of crypto enthusiasts to buy little boxes that pay out cryptocurrency for connecting to the network might have some plausibility of possibly working for ultra low bandwidth IoT use cases, but is physically incompatible with the demands of an actual high bandwidth cell phone network. It looks like this is just an MVNO on top of t-mobile- MVNOs are basically where an existing cell phone company pays a small commission to someone who can sign up users. Sort of like an affiliate link. In this case, Helium is using this relationship to imply that they have built an actual cell phone network, which is probably very far from the truth.

14 points by lawrenceyan 4y ago

wslh 4y ago

I understand this initiative is connected with the Solana network [1] somehow? "What’s a Crypto carrier? Glad You Asked" [2] There was a rage about Helium protocol recently. If I remember well it was moving from low speed IoT to mobile [3] and Algorand blockchain key people trying to push Helium to Algorand instead of Solana [4] [1] https://solana.com/ https://solana.com/ [2] https://blog.hellohelium.com/whats-a-cryptocarrier-glad-you-asked/ https://blog.hellohelium.com/whats-a-cryptocarrier-glad-you-... [3] https://decrypt.co/110319/helium-founder-why-crypto-wireless-network-moving-solana https://decrypt.co/110319/helium-founder-why-crypto-wireless... [4] https://github.com/helium/HIP/issues/471 https://github.com/helium/HIP/issues/471

jki275 4y ago
The move to Solana is something I hadn't heard of before, and is absolutely par for the course with this project: technically deficient, badly planned, based in hype and bullshit.

joezydeco 4y ago

Is this their third or fourth pivot? I've lost track.

muhammadusman 4y ago

They lost me at “crypto carrier”

ulfw 4y ago
rightfully so. Means it'll never actually be a thing.

hlieberman 4y ago

A fool and his money are soon parted.

rufusroflpunch 4y ago

Never trust a project with its own token.

AustinDev 4y ago
BTC has it's own token.
- rocket_surgeron 4y ago
  Precisely.

jimlongton 4y ago

See "The Billion Dollar Network No One Uses" by YouTuber Coffeezilla [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDhU295bUv4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDhU295bUv4

lawrenceyan 4y ago
The Internet as we know it today was empty when it first started!

mikeiz404 4y ago

From their blog posts… Helium mobile is a mobile phone carrier which provides coverage via decentralized 5g cell sites. This is unlike traditional cell carriers which either own the cell site infrastructure or rent access to it from an often larger carrier. Participants who host a 5g cell site on the network are rewarded in project specific crypto tokens. Similarly opted in mobile subscribers who verify the cell sites are also rewarded in tokens. [1][2] A coverage map of the IoT network and mobile network (see the menu) can be seen here: https://explorer.helium.com/ https://explorer.helium.com/ And a little more info on the network incentives is talked about in this blog post: https://blog.helium.com/mobile-proof-of-coverage-the-road-ahead-73a25601a13d https://blog.helium.com/mobile-proof-of-coverage-the-road-ah... 1: https://blog.hellohelium.com/you-asked-we-answered/ https://blog.hellohelium.com/you-asked-we-answered/ 2: https://youtu.be/cDhTOiJ1Qtk https://youtu.be/cDhTOiJ1Qtk

wslh 4y ago
Do you remember the Fon Wireless endeavor [1]? It failed in the past, it doesn't mean it will fail now and using crypto for rewards seems a good idea in this case to reduce the friction in payment systems. It would be good to analyze more fundamentals. In this case I see crypto as a second success factor. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fon_Wireless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fon_Wireless

woah 4y ago

It’s not easy to place and install cell towers because they need to have good lines of sight to their area of coverage and they require a lot of power and installation expertise. Helium’s “box on your shelf” model where they got thousands of crypto enthusiasts to buy little boxes that pay out cryptocurrency for connecting to the network might have some plausibility of possibly working for ultra low bandwidth IoT use cases, but is physically incompatible with the demands of an actual high bandwidth cell phone network. It looks like this is just an MVNO on top of t-mobile- MVNOs are basically where an existing cell phone company pays a small commission to someone who can sign up users. Sort of like an affiliate link. In this case, Helium is using this relationship to imply that they have built an actual cell phone network, which is probably very far from the truth.