Helium Mining

Irish_rat · 18-05-2021 9:01pm #1

I've only scratched the surface on this but there seems to be quite a few miners in Ireland.

Anyone care to share how much helium they earn a day and is it really worth purchasing the miner.

18-05-2021 9:59pm

Had a quick read of their website.... decentralised wifi network? Is that the idea?

Tango One · 20-05-2021 2:52pm

I don't think this is mining in the traditional sense, it looks like the potential to setup a public wifi network using your internet connection. Do they intend to then sell access its not clear to me

20-05-2021 5:32pm

So I did further researching. It is a wide area network for IoT devices. These IoT devices would pay companies who run nearby towers, like phone companies, for the pleasure of using their services; GPS for example. The aim in Helium mining is to set up your own "tower" and offer a cheaper rate to these IoT services. You get paid in Helium. They want to evenly blanket an area so being too close to other nodes is bad, but at the same time you need nodes around you, just not too close, so they can talk to each other. Seems quite lucrative at the moment but there is a halving coming and it's very difficult to get a device right now. 4 month waits. With more devices coming online, that should reduce the payout even further. This could be offset by the price of the Helium coin going up but that's anyone's guess.

Next time someone tells you crypto has no real world function, tell them about this

Raoul · 21-05-2021 3:08pm

I have one of the free coolspots. I can send a referral link. I get about 1.4 HNT per month from it. That is 20% of the earnings of the coolsports. I have zero coolspots within my range therefore I am earning feck all. It could earn a lot if there were more within my range. Worth having though since the device is sent out for free.

21-05-2021 6:30pm

Raoul wrote: »

I have one of the free coolspots. I can send a referral link. I get about 1.4 HNT per month from it. That is 20% of the earnings of the coolsports. I have zero coolspots within my range therefore I am earning feck all. It could earn a lot if there were more within my range. Worth having though since the device is sent out for free.

Send on that referral link please.

Looks like the catch with these is that they take 80% of the HNT by giving you a free device.

AlmightyCushion · 21-05-2021 9:29pm

Raoul wrote: »

I have one of the free coolspots. I can send a referral link. I get about 1.4 HNT per month from it. That is 20% of the earnings of the coolsports. I have zero coolspots within my range therefore I am earning feck all. It could earn a lot if there were more within my range. Worth having though since the device is sent out for free.

I'd take that referral link as well if there is one going.

thunderdog · 21-05-2021 10:09pm

There is 1 helium account linked to 20 hotspots in Dublin which have mined 11,000 HNT so far. Pays to get in early

(13aszdzRCqLoQJq2L5yqFDC63f6WYJqdPwRHP6bMhvbEMosrhix)

gomamochi1 · 23-05-2021 1:59am

Raoul wrote: »

I have one of the free coolspots. I can send a referral link. I get about 1.4 HNT per month from it. That is 20% of the earnings of the coolsports. I have zero coolspots within my range therefore I am earning feck all. It could earn a lot if there were more within my range. Worth having though since the device is sent out for free.

Hey i'd like a referral link also please if going! Thanks

withnail_is_i · 23-05-2021 2:13am

gomamochi1 wrote: »

Hey i'd like a referral link also please if going! Thanks

If possible, could I get one too please

hawkeyethenoo · 24-05-2021 8:29am

Would also take a referral if going

Raoul · 24-05-2021 9:40am

Deleted User wrote: »

Send on that referral link please.

Looks like the catch with these is that they take 80% of the HNT by giving you a free device.

That's it exactly. The device is free but they earn 80%.

Anyone looking for a referral, they will need to pm me their email.

The link will then be sent to your email from their site.

edit - not even sure if the referral works as I have tried to input people's email and it just says "This person is already been referred!" for people I am 100% sure haven't been referred.

circadian · 24-05-2021 10:06am

I was looking into this a few months ago and noticed that the turnaround for the hardware was 12 weeks or so. In crypto land that's an eternity and I wasn't willing to wait until summer to get the gear only for the price to tank.

It's certainly an interesting concept and I'd consider it worthwhile since it's purely serving for IoT devices. I only had an issue with turnaround/loss potential at the time.

Fair play to anyone up and running with this, I'll be watching the project for advances.

Raoul · 24-05-2021 5:00pm

Referrals sorted, I think. Emails should be sent out to anyone who wanted one.

I have one since Jan/Feb and I have earned 8HNT and there isn't another miner close to me at all.

circadian · 24-05-2021 5:02pm

Didn't spot your post about coolspots. Any more space for referral? I'd be interested in poking around with this.

pioneerpro · 25-05-2021 12:55pm

Is 5G not going to make this completely redundant as a business model within the next 36 months?

I'm honestly not sure how the data backhaul capacity and economies of scale enjoyed by both types of Operators are going to be beaten by 4 layers of middlemen between the IoT Device and the Serving Gateway.

Flying Abruptly · 25-05-2021 3:02pm

pioneerpro wrote: »

Is 5G not going to make this completely redundant as a business model within the next 36 months?

I'm honestly not sure how the data backhaul capacity and economies of scale enjoyed by both types of Operators are going to be beaten by 4 layers of middlemen between the IoT Device and the Serving Gateway.

LoRa, which is the IoT wireless technology, operates in a different space compared to 5G. It is designed to be long range and low power suitable for small sensors scattered throughout the environment (think temperature monitoring, gps tracking, on-off sensors, etc.).

The data package is the order of bytes with a duty cycle of 0.1-1%. That means for example a temperature sensor could send a packet of 5 bytes (containing basic information such as sensor ID, temperature, battery %, alarm, status) every 5-10 minutes, depending on the application. The power usage is tiny and a coin cell battery could last a couple of years. 5G for this type of application is overkill as you don't need high bandwidth or transmission rates and battery life will also be a lot less.

Anybody can set up a private network (using a Raspberry Pi) or connect to a open source free network (such as the ThingsNetwork) to receive their sensor data. There is also already a national test bed run by TCD in Ireland for people developing IoT devices in multiple cities across Ireland. These types of networks are already well established in the UK and Netherlands.

From my understanding, Helium is trying to set up a separate network using the same technology and charge users for access. Its business case has been reviewed by a guy who builds LoRa sensors and networks here.

pioneerpro · 25-05-2021 3:48pm

Flying Abruptly wrote: »

LoRa, which is the IoT wireless technology, operates in a different space compared to 5G. It is designed to be long range and low power suitable for small sensors scattered throughout the environment...

My point exactly. I'm afraid there's a lot of misconceptions about 5G's role in the IoT, the sort of bands they can use (including things like CBR in the states), the power requirements and the use-cases.

https://www.gsma.com/iot/narrow-band-internet-of-things-nb-iot/

The large-scale small-cell rollout inherent in the 5G NR Nodes also subsumes the geo-footprint of this.. effectively non-802.11 mesh network.

That means for example a temperature sensor could send a packet of 5 bytes (containing basic information such as sensor ID, temperature, battery %, alarm, status) every 5-10 minutes, depending on the application. The power usage is tiny and a coin cell battery could last a couple of years. 5G for this type of application is overkill as you don't need high bandwidth or transmission rates and battery life will also be a lot less.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210325150019.htm

Anybody can set up a private network (using a Raspberry Pi) or connect to a open source free network (such as the ThingsNetwork) to receive their sensor data. There is also already a national test bed run by TCD in Ireland for people developing IoT devices in multiple cities across Ireland. These types of networks are already well established in the UK and Netherlands.

5G NB-IOT is literally a Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networking technology analagous to these.

randombar · 25-05-2021 3:55pm

I might get onto the waiting list for a hotspot, any ideas which one to go for?

Thinking by a window.

Any security concerns?

timmyntc · 25-05-2021 4:21pm

Flying Abruptly wrote: »

LoRa, which is the IoT wireless technology, operates in a different space compared to 5G. It is designed to be long range and low power suitable for small sensors scattered throughout the environment (think temperature monitoring, gps tracking, on-off sensors, etc.).

The data package is the order of bytes with a duty cycle of 0.1-1%. That means for example a temperature sensor could send a packet of 5 bytes (containing basic information such as sensor ID, temperature, battery %, alarm, status) every 5-10 minutes, depending on the application. The power usage is tiny and a coin cell battery could last a couple of years. 5G for this type of application is overkill as you don't need high bandwidth or transmission rates and battery life will also be a lot less.

Anybody can set up a private network (using a Raspberry Pi) or connect to a open source free network (such as the ThingsNetwork) to receive their sensor data. There is also already a national test bed run by TCD in Ireland for people developing IoT devices in multiple cities across Ireland. These types of networks are already well established in the UK and Netherlands.

From my understanding, Helium is trying to set up a separate network using the same technology and charge users for access. Its business case has been reviewed by a guy who builds LoRa sensors and networks here.

That's all well and good, but IoT as a fad has come and gone several times in the past. Unless IoT actually really takes off and people utilize Helium network with their IoT devices (which also need to have LoRa comms) - what good is the network and the coin? All this will have a big impact on the potential value (or lack thereof) you would think.

Flying Abruptly · 25-05-2021 4:31pm

pioneerpro wrote: »

My point exactly. I'm afraid there's a lot of misconceptions about 5G's role in the IoT, the sort of bands they can use (including things like CBR in the states), the power requirements and the use-cases.

https://www.gsma.com/iot/narrow-band-internet-of-things-nb-iot/

The large-scale small-cell rollout inherent in the 5G NR Nodes also subsumes the geo-footprint of this.. effectively non-802.11 mesh network.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210325150019.htm

5G NB-IOT is literally a Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networking technology analagous to these.

I agree that there is a lot of overlap between these 2 technologies, with both having pros and cons. I think this article breaks it down well. A lot of these competing types of LPWAN technologies, including others such as SigiFox and NB-Fi, are probably going to fight it out over the next few years until one of them comes out on top.

Flying Abruptly · 25-05-2021 4:46pm

timmyntc wrote: »

That's all well and good, but IoT as a fad has come and gone several times in the past. Unless IoT actually really takes off and people utilize Helium network with their IoT devices (which also need to have LoRa comms) - what good is the network and the coin? All this will have a big impact on the potential value (or lack thereof) you would think.

Exactly. There are so many other competing networks at the moment and Helium would some need to be used on a massive scale for IoT devices for it to have any sort of real value. From the data in the video, Helium only sold $325 worth of data access credits in the last 30 days worldwide so the business model and HNT price appear to be completely unrelated.

pioneerpro · 25-05-2021 4:53pm

Flying Abruptly wrote: »

I agree that there is a lot of overlap between these 2 technologies, with both having pros and cons. I think this article breaks it down well. A lot of these competing types of LPWAN technologies, including others such as SigiFox and NB-Fi, are probably going to fight it out over the next few years until one of them comes out on top.

SigiFox were circling the drain last year, alongside a bunch of BLE and other plays. I honestly couldn't put them in the same category as Quectel or Rakuten or whomever else.

Tbh 5G fulfills both the transmission and the power needs, and is the most understood tech stack, has the most supply chain support and is fully opensource and compliant to 3GPP. There'd need to be a very strong USP to supersede it as the preferred networking/transmission techstack and protocol for IoT imo - and it's game over if the remote power commercialisation can work as described (not dissimilar to RFID tags).

pioneerpro · 25-05-2021 4:56pm

timmyntc wrote: »

That's all well and good, but IoT as a fad has come and gone several times in the past. Unless IoT actually really takes off and people utilize Helium network with their IoT devices (which also need to have LoRa comms) - what good is the network and the coin? All this will have a big impact on the potential value (or lack thereof) you would think.

IoT as a thing is here to stay with virtual sim cards and shared IMSI/IMEI combined with ultra low or no-power requirements as regards things like sensors. The stuff I've seen in person is nothing short of staggering. The LTE racetrack proving grounds over in England is an interesting one on a budget, but you've probably seen all the Formula 1 tie-ins by now with the big boys.

IoT, remember, doesn't just mean these large volume, small footprint, user-oriented devices. Italso applies to all sorts of very significant Industrial and Agricultural applications and will absolutely transform things like the mining and deep-sea drilling industries.

Flying Abruptly · 25-05-2021 4:57pm

pioneerpro wrote: »

SigiFox were circling the drain last year, alongside a bunch of BLE and other plays. I honestly couldn't put them in the same category as Quectel or Rakuten or whomever else.

Tbh 5G fulfills both the transmission and the power needs, and is the most understood tech stack, has the most supply chain support and is fully opensource and compliant to 3GPP. There'd need to be a very strong USP to supersede it as the preferred networking/transmission techstack and protocol for IoT imo - and it's game over if the remote power commercialisation can work as described (not dissimilar to RFID tags).

Agreed. I was not aware of the wireless power work so if that does get fully implemented then its very hard to beat.

timmyntc · 26-05-2021 10:16am

pioneerpro wrote: »

IoT as a thing is here to stay with virtual sim cards and shared IMSI/IMEI combined with ultra low or no-power requirements as regards things like sensors. The stuff I've seen in person is nothing short of staggering. The LTE racetrack proving grounds over in England is an interesting one on a budget, but you've probably seen all the Formula 1 tie-ins by now with the big boys.

IoT, remember, doesn't just mean these large volume, small footprint, user-oriented devices. Italso applies to all sorts of very significant Industrial and Agricultural applications and will absolutely transform things like the mining and deep-sea drilling industries.

It has its uses I'm not disputing that - however the large scale adoption is IoT in the home or for the masses is not happening by and large. Some devices will make the breakthrough but for every 1 that does, 1000 others will not.

How many people bought a Juicero? Or a smart fridge that orders milk when you're out? Not many.

For Helium to take off it will need widespread mass market IoT adoption. Industry will have their own networking solutions for the most part - be surprised if they change to helium and pay for use.

pioneerpro · 26-05-2021 10:42am

timmyntc wrote: »

It has its uses I'm not disputing that - however the large scale adoption is IoT in the home or for the masses is not happening by and large.

How many people bought a Juicero? Or a smart fridge that orders milk when you're out? Not many.

There's as many non-fad smart devices as there are fad ones, as per the charts above.

For Helium to take off it will need widespread mass market IoT adoption. Industry will have their own networking solutions for the most part - be surprised if they change to helium and pay for use.

Yep, and for major IoT its all 5G due to the stack, footprint, operating bands, 3GPP compliance, and supply chain.

timmyntc · 26-05-2021 10:52am

pioneerpro wrote: »

There's as many non-fad smart devices as there are fad ones, as per the charts above.

...

Yep, and for major IoT its all 5G due to the stack, footprint, operating bands, 3GPP compliance, and supply chain.

Yes thats kind of my point - Alexas and those voice activated speakers (90% of users use them like that) are all well and good, but thats not the kind of thing to leverage something like Helium or a LoRa network.

Really for Helium to see adoption it will have to be hobbyists - given that as you've said, major IoT will go with 5G due to the established standards and widespread rollout. Home appliances and things are not going to be LoRa compatible. So it begs the question - who is going to use Helium?

pioneerpro · 26-05-2021 5:11pm

timmyntc wrote: »

Really for Helium to see adoption it will have to be hobbyists - given that as you've said, major IoT will go with 5G due to the established standards and widespread rollout. Home appliances and things are not going to be LoRa compatible. So it begs the question - who is going to use Helium?

My question exactly. By the time they're able to serve their TAM, they'll end up commercially unviable imo.

Take Project Loon as an example of great tech and innovation just not finding a place in the market by the time it matured enough for B2B.

circadian · 15-07-2021 2:50pm

Has anyone received a coolspot yet?

Raoul · 18-08-2021 10:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117614742#Comment_117614742

I sent out a few referrals. One of the people I sent it to has received it.

HNT is going quite well now. I am still just using the stock antenna that came with the coolspot. My rewards aren't great. I'm in rented accommodation though and hoping to not be here much longer, so I haven't invested in a better aerial. Some people near me are earning ridiculous amounts though.

Helium Mining

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