What is Helium (HNT)?

Helium (HNT) is a layer 1 blockchain that aims to create an Internet of Things (IoT) network through the use of its own Hotspots, with the ability to create a decentralized Internet network, which offers validators the possibility of obtaining tokens. HNT in exchange for offering Internet coverage.

Helium (HNT) is a blockchain project that seeks to build small wireless networks capable of serving entire communities or cities to deploy digital connectivity services for their inhabitants. The idea is that, first of all, the IoT devices that are part of our daily lives can have these connections to be “always connected” in an economical way. 

Helium is also looking to scale new frontiers. To this end, Helium has recently partnered with Telefónica and other operators around the world to start working on the deployment of 5G networks, demonstrating that the scope of the Helium network can be enormous, but above all accessible and sustainable.

Project beginnings

Those responsible for the development of Helium are Shawn Fanning, Amir Haleem and Sean Carey. The project started in 2013, in order to facilitate the construction of a network of connected devices. 

His main creation on the way to achieving this goal was the Helium Hotspot. This is a low-cost device that uses LoRaWAN technology to create long-range, low-power wireless connections that are ideal for moderate traffic, as you would expect from IoT devices. 

The point in favor of Helium Hotspot is that it could join a swarm of hotspots, not only to cover longer distances, but also to weave much larger connection networks, with greater capacity and at reduced costs.

The reason for choosing this scheme is that it is cheaper and is capable of directly interconnecting IoT devices, avoiding carrying all that traffic through the Internet network.

In this way, not only would an own network be generated for said devices, but at the same time new mechanisms would be created for their maintenance, thanks to which the operators would be "mining" HNT coins with their provision of services and receiving compensation for their work. . 

In addition, the low consumption of Helium Hotspots makes them perfect for creating networks in remote places, where other types of connections are much more complex and expensive to deploy.

The project announced the launch of its mainnet in July 2019, with Austin, Texas being the first city in which the Helium network was deployed. Thus, since the launch of Helium Hotspot, the project has been evolving and demonstrating its usefulness for the construction of this type of connection services.

How does Helium work?

Now, the operation of Helium is much more complex than what we can see in blockchain networks such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. The reason for that is, that Helium unites the operation of its blockchain with that of its hardware, which leads to the creation of really unique solutions that are not seen in other projects, which means one thing: Helium is one of the few blockchain projects. that has really innovated in the creation of new utilities for this technology.

WHIP, a standard protocol for wireless connections

One of those early creations is WHIP, a new standards-compliant and open source wireless networking protocol. This protocol has been designed in order to be introduced in low power devices with great range, which is known as LoRaWAN. This protocol is designed to work with existing radio chips, available from dozens of manufacturers, without the need for proprietary technologies or modulation schemes, which would make it much more complex and expensive to implement.

Helium's WHIP protocol, not to be confused with WebRTC's WHIP protocol, both share the same name, but the functionality is different. The first is focused on low power connections, long range and medium connection speeds. Meanwhile he second (related to WebRTC) is focused on offering Media Ingest connections for services like YouTube or other streaming ingest services.

The job of this protocol is to make everyone on the network speak the "same language." That is, that hotspot devices can send encoded information in such a way that clients (IoT devices, among others) can receive this information, decode it, and issue responses using the "same language." WHIP is ideal for this because it is open-source, can be easily integrated into any device, and requires no hardware modifications to do so.

Throughout this process, cryptographic tests are generated that allow each participating node to be recognized as part of the network, and for this cryptographic standards are used, such as asymmetric cryptography using the NIST P-256 curve, a globally recognized ECDSA standard.

DWN, a scheme for generating decentralized wireless networks

Now that we have a "communication language" with the WHIP protocol, Helium is looking to create a network structure to support its operation on a physical level. This is possible thanks to DWN (Decentralized Wireless Network or decentralized wireless network).

This is a unique structure in which Helium services (and its WHIP-LoRaWAN protocol) as well as additional services such as gateways to the Internet or other wireless networks (eg: satellite connections or any other adaptable to the network) are united. The idea of ​​this is to unite multiple Helium networks to form a single large network capable of seamless end-to-end communication.

To achieve this, Helium clients and routers are capable of sending and receiving communications according to their needs. Thus, if a client needs a communication with an Internet service, it can issue the communication, which will be routed through the Helium network to the target and will return the response that the client expects.

This is possible because the nodes that are part of the Helium network can provide different services. For example, a Helium node may be just a signal repeater or connection beacon, but other nodes may provide advanced connection services such as Internet links, for which they will be compensated appropriately.

Thus, we can highlight the following participants in a Helium network:

1. Client: This is the point that joins the user with the Helium network (their IoT device connected to Helium, for example).
2. Miner: is in charge of providing the wireless connection to the Helium network, a job for which he receives financial compensation in the form of HNT tokens. A miner is a Hotspot within the network and they are the main participants of the Proof of Coverage (PoC) protocol.
3. Router: Routers, on the other hand, are Internet applications that buy data from miners' devices. In places with a sufficient number of miners, routers can pay multiple miners to get enough copies of a packet to geolocate a device without the need for satellite tracking hardware. This in Helium is known as Proof of Location. Thus, routers are the termination point for the encryption of data from devices connected to the network. Also, the routers are responsible for confirming to the hotspots that the data on the devices was delivered to the correct destination and that the miner should be paid for their service.

Proof of Coverage, the Helium consensus test

Proof of Coverage (PoC) is a consensus protocol designed specifically for Helium. Its objective is to measure the coverage provided by a mining hotspot, the number of devices, connections and packages successfully served, in order to reward the miner with the corresponding HNT tokens for their service. Basically, the system uses a series of intermediate hotspots that serve as "beacons" or "wireless witnesses" that attest to the routers that a Hotspot effectively covers an area.

With this information, the routers can check the amount of data that the network has handled and its relationship with the miner, to attest that coverage is offered and the connection has been successfully served to a number of devices. Thus, the relationship between area served, connected devices and data handled, serves the routers to verify that a hotspot can receive a reward.

Helium Token, encouraging the deployment and growth of the network

An important part of Helium's operation is possible thanks to the Helium native token (HNT). The token basically has two main uses:

1. First, to serve as a reward for Helium Hotspot operators, in the construction, security and effective service of the Helium network.
2. The second is to serve as the basis for Data Credits (DC) that are produced by burning Helium tokens. These DCs are used to pay all transaction fees on the network.

In the Helium network there are several ways to earn tokens among which we have:

1. Data transfer on the network: Hotspots transfer data packets from the devices that use the network and are proportionally rewarded for their global quota of transferred data.
2. Participating in the Proof of Coverage: Access points validate the wireless coverage of their peers.
3. Serving as Beacons or Witnesses of the network, with which they help to supervise the real scope within the Proof of Coverage.
4. Serving within the consensus pool that allows Hotspots to validate transactions and publish new blocks. The probability of participating in this consensus process is based on a reputation score that changes based on participation in the test of coverage.
5. Serving as Challengers, that is, as Hotspots they are chosen to encrypt messages through the network to a group of target Hotspots. These challenges are used by the Proof of Coverage to validate the effective wireless coverage of the nodes.

Protocol Changes

Recently, the Helium developers and community have agreed to make a profound change to the way the network works. To this end, the HIP-70 (HIP for Helium Improvements Proposal) has been presented, which seeks to bring all of Helium's on-chain operation to the Solana network, thereby achieving greater speed, improvements in the ability to generate decentralized applications, without giving up the unique capabilities of Helium. The HIP-70 proposal was accepted by the community and, it is expected that the improvement will help to develop in a more consistent way the services that Helium can provide to its users.

Helium Use Cases

Perhaps the biggest use case for Helium can be seen in the connection of IoT devices for communities that want to create interconnected networks for these types of devices. For example, it is possible to create a Helium network that allows continuous tracking of the activity carried out in a fishing area, in a much cheaper way than using radio frequency beacons or expensive GNSS equipment.

Another use can be in the creation of drone swarm location networks. This type of network would allow more effective coordination of their location, direction and speed, all in real time.

However, the utility can be taken a step further, as Helium's technology can be adapted to other radio frequency technologies. For example, a remote community can obtain an Internet connection using a Helium network deployment that allows its neighbors to enjoy the connection and at the same time pay the costs of maintaining it.

In short, Helium opens up a huge range of possibilities where blockchain technology can not only provide a secure way to guarantee a service and serve for its maintenance, but at the same time, democratize access to network resources that communities around the world need. .