The Internet was born in the last century, and most of the world was unable to contribute to building it. There is a new revolution where anyone willing to make a stimulus-sized investment can participate.

Introducing Helium and the People’s Network

Helium created a new wireless network that uses Long Range WAN (LoRaWAN) technology—they call it LongFi. This technology builds the People’s Network, where anyone can contribute to the infrastructure and use it for data transfer. Anyone can buy a Helium hotspot from $500-$600 with taxes and shipping. (This is roughly one of the United Status stimulus checks sent out for one person.) Once you set up your hotspot, connect it to your home network and join the Helium network, you can start earning the HNT cryptocurrency.

Bobcat miner for Helium

Earnings potential

The Helium miners build the network and are rewarded with HNT for various activities. Imagine investing $600 in a miner, and it earns $1,600 in the first month. You have recovered your start-up costs and gained $1,000 in gains! That’s amazing. See the example hotspot below that shows proof it is possible.

Furthermore, the price of HNT may increase in value when the HNT halving happens in August 2021. That $1,000 in gains could grow.

This hotspot earned almost 160 HNT. (An HNT is about $10 at the time of this writing.)

Helping yourself and/or others

Participating in the People’s Network with a miner can provide you with a passive income source. But what if you could use it to benefit others? Imaging buying a miner for a cash-strapped family, that college student who is unable to pay tuition and board or your favorite non-profit, and sharing your HNT income. Not only would you be helping build a new network, but you are now helping those in need.

Maximizing the earnings potential

There is no guarantee that each miner will earn the same amount of HNT. Many factors contribute to earnings (e.g., location, antenna gain, elevation, etc.). You will want to tune your hotspot to maximize the earnings potential.

Risks

There are potential risks. Here are some:

• Introducing a new device to your home network could be a cybersecurity threat.
• You may have added costs (e.g., upgrading your home Internet speed to support this new device and increased electricity usage).
• Falling victim to scams (e.g., attempting to buy a miner from a fake miner web sites).
• Losing access to your Helium wallet by losing the secret key. -Having your Helium wallet stolen.

There are many risks when it comes to new technologies and cryptocurrency in general.

Rewards

These are some rewards I can think of:

• Earn passive income for you, someone else in need, or a non-profit.
• Participate in a new technology revolution.
• Use the network to send Internet of Things (IoT) data at a low rate.
• Build a network that enables the creation of new ideas and inventions.
• Join the world of cryptocurrency.

There are many other rewards that I have not listed.

Why did I decide to participate?

I accidentally stumbled onto Helium while I was researching and learning about cryptocurrencies. I loved the concept from the start. I came from a networking background and have dabbled in IoT. The thought of building a new type of network that was decentralized, long-range, durable, and scalable was impressive on its own. But knowing that anyone who helps build it gets incentivized made this project lovable.

It took me a couple weeks before I decided the spend over $500 to buy my first hotspot. “Was it worth the risk?” was a question I needed to answer. After researching the earnings potential from other hotspots, better understanding the technology, and determining the return on investment (ROI), I was sold. It would take me three months to get my miner, and it could take up to three months to get a return on my investment. There are few opportunities when you can recoup your initial investment in 6 months or less. And being part of a new revolution sealed the deal for me.

Later, when I realized I could support those in need and my favorite non-profits, I knew I was onto something big.

I hope you found this post beneficial. None of the text in this post is investment advice. Cryptocurrencies and new movements may crash and burn overnight. Weigh the risk-reward ratio for yourself rather than trusting me.

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About the author

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Originally published on Medium

Photo by Kyle Hinkson on Unsplash