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{"id":11238,"date":"2022-07-30T15:12:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-30T15:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/07\/30\/helium-says-its-crypto-mesh-network-is-used-by-lime-and-salesforce-it-isnt\/"},"modified":"2022-07-30T15:12:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-30T15:12:02","slug":"helium-says-its-crypto-mesh-network-is-used-by-lime-and-salesforce-it-isnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/07\/30\/helium-says-its-crypto-mesh-network-is-used-by-lime-and-salesforce-it-isnt\/","title":{"rendered":"Helium says its crypto mesh network is used by Lime and Salesforce \u2014 it isn\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/7\/29\/23284330\/helium-crypto-mesh-network-lime-salesforce-denials<\/a>
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On Friday, Mashable<\/em> reported<\/a> that Helium, a crypto project praised by The New York Times<\/em><\/a> earlier this year and whose parent company is backed by investment firms like Andreessen Horowitz<\/a>, had been misleading people about the companies it works with. Helium advertises on its homepage that Lime, the mobility company behind those electric scooters and bikes, uses its crypto-powered mesh wireless network. The company, however, told Mashable<\/em> that it hasn\u2019t had a relationship with the company since 2019, and that it had only ever done initial testing with Helium\u2019s tech.<\/p>\n

Now, Salesforce, whose logo appeared on Helium\u2019s website right next to Lime\u2019s, says that it also doesn\u2019t use the technology. \u201cHelium is not a Salesforce partner,\u201d Salesforce spokesperson Ashley Eliasoph told The Verge<\/em> in an email. When I followed up to ask about the graphic below, which appeared on Helium\u2019s website, Eliasoph said that \u201cit is not accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Helium\u2019s website still listed Lime and Salesforce as customers hours after Mashable\u2019s report released.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Sometime between 4:35 PM ET and 5:30 PM ET, Lime and Salesforce\u2019s logos were removed from Helium\u2019s home page. The Verge<\/em> sent an email to Helium asking about its relationship with Salesforce at 4:48PM ET, which the company hasn\u2019t responded to at the time of this writing.<\/p>\n

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Helium\u2019s website no longer mentions Lime or Salesforce.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Unlike many crypto projects, it\u2019s actually relatively easy to understand Helium\u2019s core pitch (though there are absolutely ways to complicate it if you want). The idea is that you put a Helium hotspot \u2014 which could cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars \u2014 in your house, and the network\u2019s users connect to it when they\u2019re close by and need some data. The more data that goes through your hotspot, the more HNT (Helium\u2019s cryptocurrency) you\u2019d earn.<\/p>\n

In short, it\u2019s a sort of decentralized mesh network, where the individuals running the nodes are able to profit from providing their data. (It is worth noting, though, that using your home internet like this violates the terms of service agreements for many internet service providers.) The economics supposedly works because companies or individuals pay to use Helium\u2019s network instead of, say, cellular data.<\/p>\n

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Members of the r\/helium subreddit have been increasingly vocal about seeing poor Helium returns.<\/p>\n

On average, they spent $400-800 to buy a hotspot. They were expecting $100\/month, enough to recoup their costs and enjoy passive income.<\/p>\n

Then their earnings dropped to only $20\/mo. pic.twitter.com\/0jx2zLUaiA<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Liron Shapira (@liron) July 26, 2022<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Now, though, we have to ask: who wants to pay for it? Not many people, it seems. As one Twitter thread points out<\/a>, a report from The Generalist<\/em><\/a> says that only around $6,500 worth of data credits (or DCs) were spent to access Helium\u2019s network last month. That\u2019s a sharp contrast to the millions of dollars people have spent on equipment to set up hotspots for the network in hopes of profiting, and it\u2019d be shockingly low if Lime were actually connecting its scooters to the network, or if Salesforce customers were using it to monitor warehouses, like Helium pitched in 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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