My general assumption of every crypto concept is that it is naturally incentivized to consume all available resources relevant to mining (e.g. Bitcoin -> electricity, Eth -> GPUs, Chia -> SSDs, etc).
So then, what's the resource underlying HNT? Unlicensed ISM spectrum (and perhaps antenna rent, and latent internet backhaul). Which is actually kind of a scary thought, because among all crypto fuels, this one is actually very scarce. Sure, 900MHz is relatively underutilized and so spamming LoRa basestations every 100m isn't the end of the world; but imagine a logical extension of Helium into 2.4, 5GHz spectrum, where suddenly your home wifi is fighting for signal with 100s of venture-backed mining rigs on every street corner.
Not saying good can't come from it, I do appreciate crypto concepts that actually try to accomplish something productive as a byproduct, and after all ample coverage of a cheap data network is a good thing, but the spectrum is fundamentally a shared resource, and needs to be approached carefully.
There is a concept of saturation in Helium network. You can see the effect in real time as rewards are plummeting in oversubscribed areas like San Francisco. Too many nodes --> reward scale goes down --> network deployments percolate towards the perimeter where ROI is better --> Network grows in geographic coverage.
This is the beauty of the proof of coverage scheme. Its an awesome way to distribute rewards to people who provide valuable coverage while simultaneously creating a force to disperse over a large geographic area.
So then, what's the resource underlying HNT? Unlicensed ISM spectrum (and perhaps antenna rent, and latent internet backhaul). Which is actually kind of a scary thought, because among all crypto fuels, this one is actually very scarce. Sure, 900MHz is relatively underutilized and so spamming LoRa basestations every 100m isn't the end of the world; but imagine a logical extension of Helium into 2.4, 5GHz spectrum, where suddenly your home wifi is fighting for signal with 100s of venture-backed mining rigs on every street corner.
Not saying good can't come from it, I do appreciate crypto concepts that actually try to accomplish something productive as a byproduct, and after all ample coverage of a cheap data network is a good thing, but the spectrum is fundamentally a shared resource, and needs to be approached carefully.