What Is Helium (HNT)?
HNT is the native coin of Helium, which is a decentralized blockchain-based network that focuses on connecting low-power Internet of Things (IoT) devices. If you’re interested in the current Helium price, check out the HNT price chart above.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term used to refer to a network of physical things that have sensors, software, and other technologies built into them in order to connect and exchange data with other systems and devices over the internet.
Low-powered wireless devices can interact with one another and send data through Helium’s node-based network. Any device that adheres to the LoRaWAN wireless protocol can be added to the network. LoRaWAN technology was designed specifically for wireless IoT technologies as it offers a far greater range than WiFi or Bluetooth connections.
Helium employs a unique consensus mechanism called Proof-of-Coverage (PoC). This mechanism rewards users who confirm coverage, proving their location and network connectivity.
The HoneyBadger BFT multi-party computation protocol, which is a component of the Helium Consensus Protocol, serves as the foundation for PoC. HoneyBadger BFT allows nodes to reach a consensus even when the connection quality is poor.
The network nodes are referred to as Hotspots. These Hotspots combine a blockchain mining mechanism with a wireless gateway. Users can either buy already existing Hotspots or develop new ones. Hotspots mine HNT tokens and offer a certain range of network coverage.
Essentially, HNT coins are used as rewards for miners. The miners can then use HNT coins to pay for Helium services, or they can simply sell them.
Aside from HNT tokens, Helium also has Data Credits (DC). DC tokens are utilized to pay transaction fees and send bytes of data using Helium LongFi. Unlike the HNT price, the DC value is fixed at $0.00001. Network users can buy DCs from HNT owners or convert HNT to get them. Every HNT token converted to DC gets burned.
The Founders of Helium
Helium was founded by Shawn Fanning, Sean Carey, and Amir Haleem in 2013. Prior to Helium, Shawn Fanning developed a popular P2P music-sharing platform called Napster. Sean Carey worked at Where, which is an advertising optimization company. Amir Haleem has experience in both game creation and competitive esports. Thus, all three founders have pretty diverse backgrounds prior to developing the Helium crypto project.
Tokenomics of HNT
The HNT token was launched without a pre-mine, meaning that the initial supply of HNT was zero. However, it started growing as more and more users started mining HNT coins. The first ever HNT was mined on July 29th, 2019.
Overall, up to 5 million new HNT tokens can be mined every month. The max supply of Helium coins is 223 million. This limit means that the asset is deflationary, and the Helium price will increase as the supply is reduced through burning.
Helium is distributed between miners, investors, and the Helium company itself at the end of each mining session, which generally happens every 30-60 minutes. Overall, 66% goes to miners, while investors and the Helium team share the remaining portion.
Throughout the years, the Helium price has shown a tendency to follow market trends. In November 2021, around the time when Bitcoin nearly reached the $70,000 threshold, HNT peaked at $55. Similarly, following the bearish market in the summer of 2022, the value of Helium was also reduced.
If you’re planning to buy Helium tokens, note that the Helium price is prone to change. This happens because the HNT price is affected by the volatility of the whole crypto market and is strongly influenced by more prominent cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).
