What is Helium? The Decentralized Network Taking Over Telecoms

HNT, IOT, MOBILE tokenomics and network growth

Have you ever heard of LoRaWAN?

Nope, it’s not a jedi.

It’s a network - but not like Bluetooth or WiFi.

It stands for Long Range Wide Area Network, and it’s purpose-built for IoT device connectivity.

IoT devices (when you hear the phrase IoT - Internet of Things - often these are LoRaWAN) are physical objects with embedded sensors & software that collect and exchange data over the internet.

• Smart home devices - security cameras, thermostats

• Temperature / pressure / moister industrial sensors

• Asset trackers (vehicle fleets, equipment, inventory)

These are low-power devices that send small amounts of data periodically over long distances (unlike Bluetooth and WiFi devices, which stream large amounts of data over short distances).

Until now, most IoT devices ran on cellular networks, which is expensive for devices that don’t constantly transmit data.

Helium came along in 2019, promising to fix that. In this piece I will break down what the Helium Network does and what it appears to be capable of.

Given DePIN is gaining mindshare and is one of the breakout killer crypto apps, it’s time to talk about Helium.

In This Article

• Key metrics on network growth and adoption

• A breakdown of Helium's clever 4-token system (HNT, IOT, MOBILE & DC)

• How Helium outcompetes traditional telecoms on pricing and flexibility

• Real-world applications already live on the network

• Competition and risks: potential threats to Helium's future