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Is Helium (HNT) the Future of Wireless?

The Internet of Things is already a billion-dollar industry, with billions of connected devices as of today. Also, IoT spending is on track to reach almost $1.4 trillion by 2021. While the IoT industry continues to grow, it needs a secure and readily available internet to flourish. However, the available solutions, i.e., cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth, are either too expensive, too energy-intensive, or too limited in range. 

The Internet of Things is already a billion-dollar industry, with billions of connected devices as of today. Also, IoT spending is on track to reach almost $1.4 trillion by 2021. While the IoT industry continues to grow, it needs a secure and readily available internet to flourish. However, the available solutions, i.e., cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth, are either too expensive, too energy-intensive, or too limited in range. 

The Internet of Things is already a billion-dollar industry, with billions of connected devices as of today. Also, IoT spending is on track to reach almost $1.4 trillion by 2021. While the IoT industry continues to grow, it needs a secure and readily available internet to flourish. However, the available solutions, i.e., cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth, are either too expensive, too energy-intensive, or too limited in range. 

The Helium network is a blockchain-powered wireless network that allows devices from anywhere in the globe to connect to the internet and establish their location without needing power-intensive satellite location hardware or costly network plans. Helium wants to utilize the blockchain to bring decentralization to an industry long dominated by powerful monopolies. The result is that an affordable wireless network becomes a commodity available to anyone. 

Helium’s secure and open-source network also allows developers to build energy-saving, internet-connected devices in a fast and low-cost manner. With this, the project wants to ‘Start a Wireless Revolution.’ 

At the time of writing, the network had 10,426 total hotspots, with close to 8 billion credits spent, per its website. 

Breaking Down Helium

Launched in 2013, Helium is a decentralized wireless network that seeks to offer a secure and cost-effective way for low-power devices to join the IoT industry. The Helium protocol runs on blockchain technology and uses the HoneyBadgerBFT consensus model. 

Helium has the following core features: 

  • Helium hotspot – A tool that’s both a miner and users’ pathway to the Helium blockchain
  • Proof of coverage – A novel mining mechanism that uses radio waves to verify the location of Hotspots
  • LongFi – a technology that combines the wireless protocol LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) with the Helium blockchain so compatible LoRaWAN devices can transfer data over the Helium network

Helium: Existing Products

#1. Helium Hotspot

The Helium Hotspot is a wireless router by Helium. Just like other LoRaWAN devices on Helium, the Hotspots support miles of wireless network for anyone to carry out mining and help maintain and support the network. 

#2. Helium Console 

This is an internet-based management tool through which developers can register, verify, and manage their devices in the network. The Helium Console is responsible for managing user-level permissions, registering devices IDs, onboarding new devices securely, and utilizing data credits. 

#3. LongFi

This tool combines LoRaWAN with the Helium blockchain, so any LoRaWAN device can plug in and start transferring data on the network. LongFi supports the following: 

  • Easy device onboarding: Users can onboard as many devices as possible without them having to undergo endless configurations or verification by third parties
  • Device roaming: Devices on the network have IDs that are stored on the blockchain, allowing them to transfer data to the network through any Hotspot 
  • Earning HNT tokens: Via LongFi, device owners can earn HNT tokens for transferring data over the network
  • LoRaWAN Support: Any LoRaWAN device can transfer data through the network with little configuration required
#4. Helium Tabs

These are location trackers enabled by Helium. They can track all sorts of things: from pets to luggage, to keys, and pretty much anything that’s covered by the Helium network.

Helium: Technical Infrastructure

Here, we look at the infrastructural highlights of Helium. 

#1. Proof of Coverage (PoC)

PoC is a variation of the Proof of Work consensus algorithm that utilizes radio waves to verify hotspots’ location on the Helium network. PoC constantly requires routers to prove their wireless coverage quality by decrypting and transferring LongFi data over the network. Helium Hotspots stand to earn HNT for submitting valid coverage proofs. 

#2. The Helium Consensus Model

Helium’s consensus mechanism involves 16 participants – who form the Consensus Group (CG) – elected once every epoch. Any active Helium Hotspot on the network is eligible for election to become part of the CG, although they’re more likely to be chosen if they pass the PoC challenge. 

For every election, 4 new CGs are added to 12 members from the previous election. A Hotspot can participate in no more than 4 consecutive CGs. If a CG member performs poorly, they’re likely to be removed before the 4 epoch limit. Mining rewards are distributed among participating members at the end of every epoch. 

Participants in the Helium Network

The participants of Helium can be thought of as these below: 

#1. WHIP

This is an open wireless protocol that is long-range, low-power, and most fitting for use with commodity open-standards hardware. Hardware that’s compatible with WHIP can communicate over many square miles, whether in dense urban settings or rural areas. Such hardware can also last for many years using standard batteries. WHIP utilizes public-key cryptography for security, with verification taking place on the Helium blockchain.

#2. Hotspots

These are physical network devices that transfer data back and forth between routers and various devices. Hotspots also generate proof of coverage, and they can also geolocate devices through the Helium network without any additional apparatus. 

#3 Devices

Devices are hardware products embedded with a WHIP-compatible radio transceiver and can interact with Hotspots on the network. Devices are powered by the typical battery and can last for several years with them. Devices can exist in many forms depending on their use case, and the performance and battery life can be optimized through a variety of transmission strategies.

Helium: Community Growth Strategies

The Helium team is currently undertaking several strategies to advance the growth of the project. These strategies are as follows: 

  • Rewarding network participants who deployed more than 15 Hotspots
  • Educating IoT developers on how to use the Helium platform
  • Hosting Helium Hacks, a weekly video chat session by the Helium team
  • Carrying out local and online meetups
  • Engaging with the community via social media channels

Future strategies include: 

  • Releasing blockchain and IoT-related content via podcasts, videos, blogs, and interviews with industry experts
  • Providing the community with sponsorships to empower them to build apps on the Helium network

Who’s on the Helium Team? 

Helium is the brainchild of Amir Haleem, Shawn Fanning, and Sean Carrey. The trio began working on the idea in 2013. 

Haleem has a strong background in game development. Fanning is known for creating the popular music sharing platform Napster, one of the first of such platforms to employ a peer-to-peer approach. Carry has several years of development experience, including Where, an advertising platform since acquired by PayPal. 

The product team comprises members with combined experience in “radio and hardware, manufacturing, distributed systems, peer-to-peer and blockchain technologies.” 

Future of Helium

The Helium team considers where they are to be just the beginning. They view decentralized wireless networks as a still novel concept that needs more research so it can meet the demands of the modern-day internet. Given this, the team has or intends to undertake the following initiatives: 

  • Identify whether it’s possible to apply blockchain and the decentralized wireless service idea to WiFi Bluetooth and cellular networks
  • Add the possibility for more proofs of coverage to strengthen the Helium network as it grows
  • Formally illustrate the algorithm behind Proof of Coverage
  • Investigate the possibility of deploying smart contracts beyond their current limitations

The Helium Token

HNT is the native cryptocurrency of the Helium network. The token has several uses, including the two most important ones: 

  • Mining rewards: Hotspots earn HNT for contributing to the running and security of the network by transferring data
  • Payment: HNT is used by users to generate data credits with which to pay for network services

HNT: Tokenomics 

On October 20, 2020, HNT traded at $1.12, with a market cap of $57,123,035 and a market rank of #131. HNT’s 24-hour volume was $1,848,021, and it had a circulating and total supply of 51,005,233 and a total supply of 55,960,199. And finally, the token had an all-time high of $4.03 (Sep 24, 2020) and an all-time low of $0.0253391 (June 10, 2020). 

Where to Buy HNT 

HNT is listed as a market pair with USDC, USDT, PERP, and USD in exchanges like Bilaxy, Binance, Binance.US, Hoo, FTX, and Serum DEX. 

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Crypto Daily Topic

Blockchain vs Tangle: All you need to know

The issue of blockchain’s scalability is as old as blockchain itself. If you’re the tiniest bit familiar with the technology, chances are you’re aware of the blockchain’s inability to support millions of transactions at a scale that would enable it to compete with current money transfer systems such as Visa. 

The issue of blockchain’s scalability is as old as blockchain itself. If you’re the tiniest bit familiar with the technology, chances are you’re aware of the blockchain’s inability to support millions of transactions at a scale that would enable it to compete with current money transfer systems such as Visa. 

The issue of blockchain’s scalability is as old as blockchain itself. If you’re the tiniest bit familiar with the technology, chances are you’re aware of the blockchain’s inability to support millions of transactions at a scale that would enable it to compete with current money transfer systems such as Visa. 

When you wade deeper into the scalability debate, you’ll soon hear such terms as IOTA, Tangle, and directed acyclic graphs (DAG).  What do these terms mean, and is Tangle a threat to blockchain? 

In this piece, we’ll explain what Tangle is, how it stacks up to blockchain, and whether we can see a future where it replaces Bitcoin or becomes its formidable match. We’ll also give our verdict on which technology is currently more superior.

What Is Tangle?

The Tangle is a network that aims to achieve the same purpose as blockchain:  facilitate transactions in a trustless and decentralized environment. Tangle is an implementation of the directed acyclic graph (DAG) – which is also a distributed ledger like the blockchain. Also, much like the blockchain, DAGs do not have intervening authority or entity such as a bank or a government.

 This is where the similarities end. Tangle has special features designed to facilitate the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT). IoT is a  universe of interrelated devices that can interact with one another through a multitude of little unique identifiers to enable them to execute the functions they were designed for without requiring human or computer intervention.

Unlike how it sounds, the internet of things is not that complicated a concept. Imagine a shower switching itself on 5 minutes before you arrive, or a coffee machine that makes coffee 5 minutes before you wake up, or a washing machine setting itself on – all without any sort of input from you.

If this technology is to work as it’s meant to, there must be an underlying network that can handle a  massive amount of transactions- from facilitating exchanges, to transferring data,  to sending of signals – all in a seamless, secure and fast network. 

Enter Tangle. This technology is based on DAG, which is designed to support a plethora of data interactions but will facilitate the IoT in a way that the blockchain cannot.  These features are like the following: 

No miners: Unlike the blockchain, there are no miners in the Tangle network.  This eliminates the need for fees, or miners being able to block some transactions.

More relaxed data transfer rules: This makes Tangle more agile than the blockchain and thus better for handling a vast amount of transactions.

Scalable data units: This feature facilitates the transfer of training bits of data, enabling Tangle to process micro-transactions.

The pros and cons of Tangle: 

Pros

  • Zero fees
  • Faster transaction times
  • Scalable

Cons 

  • The technology is not yet tested and proven
  • Does not support decentralized applications
  • Arguably less secure
  • Centralized – Tangle relies on a ‘central coordinator node’ that checkpoints valid transactions

What Is Blockchain?

Blockchain is the technology that supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum Litecoin, and so on. Blockchain is a ledger that holds transaction blocks – which are linked to each other and secured using cryptography. Each block has a reference to the block that came before it, hence a ‘chain.’ 

Each node (miner) independently verifies the authenticity of a transaction – meaning that transactions are agreed upon via group consensus. The miner who confirms a block of transactions receives block rewards or a fraction of the transaction fees.  Miners usually invest considerable sums of money in a special mining computer known as application-specific integrated circuit (ASICs). 

Blockchains, like the Ethereum blockchain, can facilitate the creation of a special type of applications called decentralized applications (DApps). DApps are, unlike today’s applications (such as Facebook or Google), under no one’s authority or censorship. Also, DApps grant users the complete autonomy of their personal data – which is the complete opposite of how legacy applications handle users’ data.

Bitcoin’s Scalability Issues

The current blockchain architecture faces serious scalability issues. The fact that each node must verify transactions before they are added means confirmation is slow. The limited size of blocks, e.g., 1MB for the Bitcoin blockchain, is another bottleneck since a very limited amount of data can fit in each block. 

Now, as more people transact on the blockchain, the more clogged it becomes.  This means longer waiting times and increased fees, which leads to unsatisfied users. This has led to several hard forks of the Bitcoin blockchain –   all which sought faster transactions and lower fees.

Let’s take a quick look at the pros and cons of the blockchain. 

Pros: 

  • A proven history of reliability
  • A secure system that is difficult to compromise
  • Layer 2 Solutions such as the lightning network are being explored to remedy the scalability problem

Cons: 

  • The blockchain is not scalable on its own
  • High fees and long waiting times

Differences between Tangle and Blockchain

While only a few technical differences distinguish blockchain and Tangle, those differences are significant nevertheless. Let’s take a look: 

Structure – blockchain comprises a series of cryptographically connected data blocks. Tangle, on the other hand, consists of a group of data nodes that flow in just one direction. Also, blockchain can double back on itself in a circular manner, but Tangle can only move in one direction. (This means that Tangle can more rapidly transfer data.)

Security– blockchain offers better security thanks to its extremely meticulous block confirmation process that involves solving computational puzzles and verification of transactions via group consensus. On the other hand, Tangle’s security feature entails validating the two most recent transactions before confirming the next.  By this measure, blockchain is more secure than Tangle.

Decentralization – blockchain is undoubtedly decentralized since it operates on thousands of computers around the world, with no single authority overseeing transactions. Tangle is also billed as decentralized, but it utilizes a safeguard that it calls a ‘coordinator node.’  The presence of the safeguard renders Tangle centralized, one way or another. It’s hard to say that the tangle framework is entirely autonomous.

Tangle fans argue that the technology’s less detailed node addition protocol might make it less secure than blockchain, but it also makes it more agile. They stress that this makes Tangle better equipped to handle massive volumes of IoT interactions. But this uncertainty and its security, as well as its centralization problem, means the technology is far from ripe to fulfill its intended purpose, let alone compete with blockchain.

What is IOTA?

Tangle’s only application to date is the IOTA cryptocurrency. IOTA is named after IoT, which it’s designed to facilitate.  IOTA can handle a multitude of tiny transactions, which makes it ideal for the micro-transactions that run an internet of things.

As of March 30, 2020, IOTA is trading at $ 0.142212 at a market rank of 24 with a $ 395, 282, 148 market cap. 

For its part, Bitcoin is trading at $ 6, 316.03, and it ranks at number one with a market cap of $115, 552, 963, 908.

Blockchain Vs. Tangle: Which Is Better?

As the debate about which of the two technologies is better rages on, it helps to look at the specifics. To begin with, Tangle is yet to be proven as opposed to Bitcoin, which has been a mainstay for ten years now. Also, it doesn’t have nearly half of the number of users on the Bitcoin network.

Additionally, IOTA is at risk of a 34% attack, as opposed to Bitcoin’s 51%. This means that an attacker would only need to gain control of 34% of the IOTA network, rendering it less secure than blockchain.

As previously mentioned, IOTA utilizes a coordinator node that synchronizes data among all nodes, making it centralized.  This is in contrast with Bitcoin, whose nodes are equally distributed across the globe.

From these observations, it’s clear to see that blockchain maintains the upper hand in the battle between the two Technologies – at least for now.  This does not mean that IOTA’s completely written off. It is, on its own, a force to reckon with, as evidenced by its fiercely loyal community as well as a strong value proposition.

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Crypto Guides

Blockchain & Internet Of Things – The Brilliant Combination!

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Blockchain alone can revolutionize many industries, as we have seen in our previous articles. But when blockchain applied together with the next generation innovative technologies such as IoT, Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning (to name a few) will do wonders. The combination of these technologies brings the best of each other. Especially in terms of security and authenticity of the data generated from millions of devices across the world on a daily basis.

What is IoT?

IoT stands for the Internet of things. It is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital devices. These devices are provided with unique identifiers that can transfer data in the network without human-to-human or human-to-machine interaction. This is possible as the devices are extended with internet connectivity and sensors so that the transfer of data is possible.

With so much data being generated and transmitted without any human intervention, there are many concerns about the security and privacy of data. Blockchain comes to rescue to address the concerns of privacy and security in the world of IoT. Let us see how, with the help of some use cases below.

Smart Homes

The concept of IoT enables smart homes. Most of the devices we use at home can be embedded with sensors, and with the help of IoT, we can control them remotely using our smartphones. When at home, they can easily be controlled using Alexa, Google Home, with the help of voice recognition. To enable all these functionalities, sensitive data such as voice and facial recognition should be stored. This data can be stored securely in the blockchain, which allows strict access restrictions. It can be accessed by anyone else if required only through individual permissions using smart contracts.

HealthCare

IoT plays a very crucial role in health care these days. Remote health care can be achieved using IoT. Elderly care is essential to most of the countries these days as the elderly population is increasing in countries like China, Japan, and the US. Since there are fewer people to take care of the elderly, IoT can come to our rescue.

With the help of IoT, if the patients don’t take medicine on time, a message will be directly sent to their smartphones, reminding them to take medication (since the quantity isn’t reduced from the containers). Whenever a fall or sudden change in a heartbeat is detected, the nearest health care providers are automatically alerted with the help of IoT. These are only some examples of uses in health care, but since this is very sensitive data, blockchain can help in keeping them secure. Most importantly, tampering cannot be done if the data is stored in the blockchain, which is very crucial to achieve the desired outcome in these cases.

Agriculture

Agriculture can be widely improved by deploying IIOT (Industrial IOT) sensors and satellite imagery to monitor the millions of acres of land. With IoT used in the supply chain, provenance tracking can be enabled. Crops can be sold by using smart contracts even before harvesting them as all this data ensures the buyer of the quality of the product from the fields to their floor. This makes a profitable trade for all the parties involved.

There are ample opportunities for blockchain and IoT together in Industrial sectors when it comes to the maintenance of the machines. With the help of sensors continuously updating the performance of the devices, wear and tear can be restricted, thus decreasing the downtime. Automobile industries can use real-time data to get the vehicles serviced on time or replace a crucial part in time. Autonomous cars can be made more reliable and usable using IoT and blockchain. The combination of IoT and Blockchain is amazing, but it is important to remember that a lot of other potentials are yet to be achieved.