FYI: This is all my opinion on the matter. Some of this information might be inaccurate as time has gone on and things may have changed or I perceived the data incorrectly. This is just my take on this subject.
First off, let’s talk about Cryptomining.
Cryptomining is technically farming for digital tokens. To help explain that, the dollar has a sort of value that is based around gold. People mine for gold in the mountains and underground but with crypto, we use technology to mine for digital tokens. From gold, we have a rough estimate of how much gold there is in the world but we can’t mine all of it since the more we mine the less and less there is to find. This works the same way for Cryptomining. The more digital tokens we collect, the less and less there is to go around. Originally, computers would solve complex mathematical equations to mine for these digital tokens and essentially “farming” was created as a biproduct of that. (Side note: not all Tokens are limited. Tokens like $DOGE are constantly creating more and more $DOGE coin every day.)
From there we can ask the question as to why Crypto is valuable. In a way right now, Crypto is really valuable as a form of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Not to long ago, people had no idea what Bitcoin is, some still don’t but people know that it holds a value to someone. That someone is where the FOMO takes shape. If it has value to someone, then it has a dollar value that can be associated with it. Well if we look at the gold standard, there are countries who “have gold” and base their currency on gold to give value their dollar. (That’s not the only determining factor considering every country is in debt somehow, but that’s another topic.)
However, here is the lie with gold. Have you ever seen the world’s gold? Who has the gold? What does it matter about gold’s value if you don’t know who has all the gold. This is where Bitcoin originated from with the idea that gold is a standard that no one can quantify. Crypto mining on the other hand has a public ledger. This ledger is usually referred to as the Blockchain. Blockchain technology is basically what this is all based off of. You know which wallets have coins. You may not know who controls said wallets entirely due to the ability to be anonymous, but the total amount of what has been mined can be tracked. All transactions with the tokens can be tracked using the Blockchain.
Currently there are a few problems with Cryptocurrency that I see. For one, it appears that anybody can now make their own token based currency with Blockchain technology. More tokens and NFTs are popping up all over the place. All of these tokens create confusion as to whether or not something is or isn’t valuable. So unless there is a reason for Blockchain technology to exist and bring value to their token, the whole system will probably fail, miserably.
Another glaring factor is the energy crisis that traditional cryptomining contributes to. This lead China to make cryptomining illegal in the country and many other places are following suit. Here in the US, it hasn’t been outlawed yet but people are responding to the issue and pointing out that traditional cryptomining costs more than it’s worth. I keep using the word traditional as there are other ways to “mine” for tokens. Many are trying to figure out ways to be more sustainable through something other than the “Proof of Work” standard in cryptomining.
This is where I might hedge my bets on Helium and the possibility of Helium 5G. Originally, Helium’s plan was to build a network to help IoT (internet of things) devices to connect to a public network. Your smart doorbell, speaker, watch, thermostat, etc. The “smart” things in your home. They wanted to build a public network with a signal type called LongFi that was secure and technically ran by the public for the public. Once the network was built, these manufacturers could use this network to connect to their devices to their services. Users wouldn’t need to connect their device to the internet. It would just work on the public Helium network.
Well for Helium, the idea was great but there wasn’t much incentive for the public to join up to be a part of the ever expanding network. Using Blockchain technology, they can now pay the community in tokens ($NHT) so that there is a proof of work going on. Having investors in the company have added value to those tokens and well, there are a good amount of investors currently.
So here’s where I have decided that I wanted to throw down for Helium. For the longest time, I felt like 5G was going to fail. Most people have no clue how weak the signal can be for 5G. Sure, this technology is highly capable of staggering amount of data transfer, but things like the weather can affect performance. I’m talking about, rain, humidity, snowfall. This technology was designed for satellites in space so that they could communicate with each other. Since there’s no oxygen to get in the way, this was perfect.
So how does one solve this problem? By putting up as many 5G cell towers possible. Visually, that looks and sounds awful. Imagine, a cell tower on every single light post, traffic light, stop sign, everything. If you don’t believe me on the capabilities and problems with 5G, find a cell tower, face the cell tower and then do a speed test. Once that test is complete, do it again but this time, turn around and have your back facing the tower. Your speeds should be slower. That’s just standing in front of the tower but when you go into a building or just behind a wall, well that signal gets immensely worse.
So here is where Helium can come in and save 5G. with community support. If a group of members wish to share a portion of their home’s internet bandwidth and hook up a 5G Helium node, well slowly but surely, there will be an available 5G that investors can use to power their networks with the help of the community. Yes, yes. At home, you have your own internet already but this isn’t just for you. This is for the community. If I have say 10mb to share of my internet and someone needs it, I’m happy to help with this especially since I’m normally a sleep during the day and up all night, I won’t need the speed during more peak hours. Oh yeah! Also, the devices that Helium uses draw very little power compared to traditional mining.
I don’t know. It’s a lot to think of but the idea of value I think has changed. drastically in a world that doesn’t know what affordable vs investment is anymore.