Skip to main content

Helium: Internet thanks to blockchain for residents in San José


 

The company Helium supports the capital of Silicon Valley in rolling out decentralized Internet service.

The self-proclaimed capital of the Silicon Valley, San José, has once again a new technology offer for its residents: inside. In a press release, the city's mayor, Sam Liccardo, announced a partnership with Helium and the  California Emerging Technology Fund  (CETF). The plan of the three cronies is to kill two birds with one stone: On the one hand, a comprehensive WLAN offer for IoT devices is to be created using helium mining devices. On the other hand, households with low incomes are to be provided with the Internet from the profits of the miners.


The pilot project

The core components of the project are the mining equipment from Helium. Ultimately, this is a type of WLAN router known as a hotspot. These use long-range Wi-Fi technology and accordingly have a range of 300 meters to two kilometers. As a pilot project, the mayor plans to distribute 20 hotspots in his city for six months. Small businesses and private individuals can volunteer as hosts.

Meanwhile, the hotspots each consume five watts of energy to provide wireless access to all devices in their vicinity, according to the company. That is roughly the energy an LED light bulb needs. But be careful, smartphones or laptops cannot be supported with this WLAN, but 'only' the infrastructure for IoT devices. This is intended to improve city-wide services such as air quality monitoring, fire detection, water leaks, and climate-related options in San José.

On the other hand, the ready-to-use device earns at least five helium (HNT) tokens per month, according to the website. The CETF stores the tokens and issues them proportionally in the form of prepaid cards to 1,300 households participating in the project. However, not in the form of tokens, but as a one-time payment of 120 US dollars. This money is supposed to help the participants to get an internet connection cheaper.


Jordan Sun, Chief Innovation Officer of Mayor Liccardo, comments on the development: 

I look forward to discovering how cryptocurrencies can bring immediate, tangible benefits to residents suffering from the digital divide. We must continue to push the boundaries and expand our imaginations of what is possible to resolve systemic inequalities in our community.

Jordan Sun, Chief Innovation Officer, press release 9/29/2021

The Helium Mining Technology

The basic idea of ​​Helium, according to the website, is to provide wireless connectivity without relying on centralized cellular providers. The Helium P2P network currently comprises almost 200,000 nodes worldwide. The different hotspots have the opportunity to receive helium cryptocurrency tokens (HNT) in different ways. One possibility is to transfer the requested transactions between the hotspots, another is to validate them. The special thing is that HNT can also be earned if the hotspot participates in the transaction as a monitoring authority. This concept is known as the proof of coverage.

Helium transactions

As soon as the device is ready for use, it starts mining helium cryptocurrency tokens (HNT). According to the mayor's office, the hotspots mine the HNT cryptocurrency in a secure, data-efficient, and environmentally friendly way. Because they transfer less than two megabytes per month of data to the already mentioned 5 watts. The transactions carried out are then recorded in a blockchain. This guarantees decentralization, security, and anonymity.

My Top Picks
Honeygain - Passive earner that pays in BTC or PayPal
BetFury - Stack BFG for daily dividends - Play smart!
Pipeflare - Faucet that pays in ZCash and Doge, Games pay in DAI
Womplay - Mobile dApp gaming platform that rewards in EOS
Cointiply - The #1 Crypto Earning Site
LiteCoinPay - The #1 FaucetPay earner for Litecoin 
Upland - Collect Digital Properties & Test Your Skills
Publish0X - Earn Money By Writing and Reading Articles!
LBRY/Odysee - YouTube Alternative that lets you earn Money by viewing videos!

FaucetPay - The #1 Microwallet Platform
FREEBTC - The #1 FaucetPay earner for Satoshi's
FaucetCrypto - An earning/faucet site that pays out instantly
FireFaucet - An earning site that pays better for some than Cointiply
DogeFaucet - Dogecoin Faucet
xFaucet - BTC, ETH, LTC, Doge, Dash, Tron, DGB, BCH, BNB, ZEC, FEY - Claim every 5 minutes
Konstantinova - BTC, ETH, LTC, Doge, Dash, Tron, DGB, BCH, BNB, ZEC, USDT, FEY, 25 Claims Daily

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 5 largest platforms for non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles

  Since the beginning of 2021, non-fungible tokens (NFT) have had no holding back and the sector is setting new records almost every day.  More and more artists, stars and brands are realizing the potential - NFT are well on their way to catapulting the crypto space into the mainstream.  But which collectibles are currently the most popular? What are NFT? NFT are unique tokens that cannot be exchanged one-for-one for an equivalent token.  Any asset that is tokenizable can be an NFT.  This includes, for example, (digital) works of art, trading cards, game items and crypto domains.  Theoretically, however, real estate or securities can also be mapped as NFT. NFTs can be used to transparently map ownership structures on a public blockchain.  This allows them to store value just like real objects, even if additional copies are easy to make.  For example, the original picture of the Mona Lisa is significantly more valuable than a photo, as everyone kno...
11 comments
Read more

CARDALONIA: THE CARDANO METAVERSE OPENS THE GATES!

  Have you ever been to Cardalonia? With these words, the Cardano Metaverse called Cardalonia starts the gates. In this 3D world, developers and users can interact with each other. First of all, users have to create an individual character with which they can move online. After that you can enter one of the worlds built by developers with this character. You can also purchase your own land in the Cardano Metaverse via the marketplaces in Cardalonia . This is secured by Cardano's blockchain technology and therefore offers a relatively secure transfer of ownership. Since these are only digital plots of land, it is not yet entirely clear when the plots of land are purchased whether they can also be sold again in the future. A possible profit cannot be estimated at the moment. In Cardalonia, the cryptocurrency Lonia is used. The maximum amount of tokens in circulation is 100,000,000. The team consists of Alice Sand (Co-Founder), Vasil Air (CTO) and Dustan Water (Fullstack Developer). T...
Post a Comment
Read more

BlackRock launches crypto ETF, certifies massive growth potential for crypto market

  Influential asset manager BlackRock has launched a blockchain index fund (ETF) that offers investors a way to invest in the crypto industry without having to invest directly in related cryptocurrencies. Accordingly, the world's largest asset manager, which currently has assets worth almost 10 trillion. US dollars managed, the so-called Blockchain and Tech ETF (IBLC) was launched this week. The $4.7 million ETF does not invest directly in cryptocurrencies or crypto investment products, but instead tracks various companies within the crypto industry. The ETF is made up of 41 different securities, of which the American crypto exchange Coinbase accounts for the largest share at 11.45%. They are followed by the Bitcoin ( BTC ) mining companies Marathon Digital Holdings (11.19%) and Riot Blockchain (10.41%). To still leave room for future investments in the crypto market, the ETF has a 9.15% cash component in US dollars. In addition to the launch of the new ETF, BlackRock has also publ...
Post a Comment
Read more