After reading my last article, where there was a phrase about radio broadcast miningpeople bombarded me with questions. And what about mining? And where is the money? They hinted that I should be in a madhouse. This may be true, but here are the guys - helium.com, at which few people dare to laugh.
Surprisingly little mention of these guys can be found on the Russian Internet. This is despite the fact that they are preparing a revolution not only in the Internet of Things industry, but also in communications in general. Here, in the remnants of the brain, Lefty's phrase pops up that "the British do not clean their guns with bricks."
Here are them , here they are with everything in English. I don't know much about cryptocurrencies. Therefore, I wanted to screw this topic and listen to smart people. Maybe something will come to me.
As I understand it, they want to build Helium decentralized radio access network. Now networks are built by operators, they also dictate prices. Helium wants everyone to be able to set up an access point and sell the messaging service directly to the consumer. Well, or almost directly, through them, because they also need to somehow earn.
Their motto on the front page reads: Down with the opsos, give the people's telecom! In a lyrical digression, they, throwing a stone into the garden of ordinary miners, talk about the sinful practice when energy is spent only for the sake of money. In contrast, they propose to righteously mine the radio broadcast in order to ensure a reduction in the cost of communication services, which is beneficial for humanity.
To achieve complete, true decentralization of the network, they came up with two concepts: proof of coverage (proof of coverage) and proof of location (proof of location). The description of the receipt of this evidence takes up a large part of their memorandum. Unfortunately, I do not have the ability to study the mathematics of these proofs in detail. I am forced to believe the authors and focus on the meaning of the concept in terms of radio access.
Helium offer their own way of radio access and at the first stage even their hardware for this way. They promise full open source in the future. It is already on the network part of the system - . The creation of its own method of radio access, apparently, is due to the need to securely perform procedures for proving coverage and location. At the moment, there is no description of radio access, although it can be understood from the chips used that it will be similar to UNB.
The countermeasures against attacks on the system are specifically described. It is natural when it comes to money, the system must be secure.
Well, of course, there is a blockchain in which all network events are stored for centuries.
Where is the money here? Owners of terminal devices or organizations servicing them pay for message delivery and positioning, access point owners receive for tokens (I confess, I did not understand this moment, explain why ?!) and for message delivery through their hotspots and for positioning end devices using them. Access point and end device owners can even to bargain for a price, since the message can be delivered through different access points. This micro-auction, as I understand it, is designed to reduce the price of message delivery and move cellular operators out of the Internet of Things market.
I hope that woke readers' interest in the topic. I look forward to a lively discussion. The topic, of course, requires more in-depth consideration, but let's start small.
Although the concept seems flawless, I myself don't like it very much in terms of radio access. No information about the protocol has been published yet, but it seems to me that the overhead of evidence will be hefty. Apparently the guys are more from the world of cryptography than from the world of radio.
As one controversial person said: we will go the other way!
It is a on the topic of mining radio broadcast. It's all about the radio.
Source: habr.com