Helium’s Crypto Revolution: How Decentralized Networks Prove Blockchain’s Real-World Value
Forget speculative trading—Helium’s IoT network shows crypto actually solving problems. Here’s how.
### The Silent Disruptor in Your Backyard
While Wall Street obsesses over Bitcoin ETFs, Helium’s decentralized hotspots quietly blanket cities with wireless coverage—no telecom giants required. Users earn crypto for sharing bandwidth, creating a self-sustaining economy that bypasses legacy infrastructure.
### Tokenomics That Actually Work
Unlike meme coins chasing hype cycles, Helium’s HNT token powers tangible services. Each data transmission burns tokens, creating scarcity through real usage—a concept so novel in crypto it almost feels illegal.
### The Cynic’s Corner
Sure, bankers still dismiss decentralized networks… right up until they start losing clients to cheaper, blockchain-powered alternatives. Funny how ‘useless tech’ keeps eating their lunch.
You can’t beat free
In his note for Blockworks, Carpinito focuses mostly on carrier offload as a source of growth for Helium.
But Frank Mong of Nova Labs, the company that developed the Helium network, seems more excited about the plans that Helium Mobile offers to individuals.
In a recent conversation, Mong (who also related the above drone anecdote to me) highlighted that Helium Mobile has recently been adding as many as 2,000 subscribers a day.
Importantly, the cost to Helium Mobile of acquiring these customers has been unusually low: just $10 to $15 per customer, according to Mong — vs. the $100+ that it costs its traditional competitors.
“There’s magic here,” Mong told me.
It’s not hard to figure out the trick, though: Helium offers a free mobile plan.
(It might even be less than free, after earning rewards for data sharing.)
I assume that’s a loss leader for Nova Labs, which runs Helium Mobile, but those are all customers who can be upsold on paid plans or monetized in other ways.
Mong’s near-term ambition is to get to a million such customers using the Helium-branded network, and also a million gateways providing the WiFi they connect to.
That would still be small, relative to telco giants like AT&T and T-Mobile, but huge by crypto standards.
Mong is not measuring Helium as a crypto business, however.
“I think we can dominate the telco industry,” he told me.
And maybe other things too.
“Our aspirations are bigger than providing internet access,” Mong told me.
He wouldn’t be pressed on specifics, which is wise: The history of tech startups demonstrates that they rarely go where their founders expect them to.
Also, this is crypto: You can just build a network and see what people do with it.
Helium has invented something that sells (to paraphrase Edison), and that is much needed proof that crypto can have real utility.
- The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
- Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
- Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
- 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox.
- Lightspeed: All things Solana.
- The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
- Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.
