What is Helium?

Helium is a decentralised wireless network and one of the best-known DePIN projects. DePIN — decentralised physical infrastructure networks — is one of crypto's most concrete ideas: use tokens to incentivise ordinary people to build real-world infrastructure from the bottom up, instead of a single company doing it top-down.

The idea

Building wireless coverage is hugely expensive — carriers spend billions on towers. Helium flips the model: individuals buy and deploy hardware (a "hotspot") that provides coverage in their area, and the network pays them in tokens for the coverage and data they actually provide. Crypto solves the chicken-and-egg problem of bootstrapping infrastructure — early contributors are rewarded for building out a network before it's widely used.

How it works — two networks

• IoT network. The original network: people run LoRaWAN hotspots providing low-power, long-range connectivity for Internet-of-Things sensors and devices. Contributors earn the IOT token.
• Mobile network. A newer 5G/CBRS layer where people run small cells to provide phone coverage, earning the MOBILE token. Helium Mobile is a consumer phone carrier built on top of it, offering plans that lean on this community-built coverage (plus traditional roaming).
• HNT. The network's primary token. The sub-network tokens (IOT, MOBILE) tie back to HNT through a burn-and-mint economic model that links usage to the main token.

The Solana connection

Helium ran on its own purpose-built blockchain for years, but in 2023 it migrated to Solana — moving its tokens, governance, and accounting on-chain to Solana to benefit from its throughput, low fees, and existing tooling rather than maintaining a bespoke chain. It was one of the largest networks ever to migrate, and a major proof point that Solana could host serious DePIN at scale. Helium leans on compressed NFTs to represent its huge fleet of hotspots cheaply on-chain.

Risks and realities to keep in mind

• Hardware ROI isn't guaranteed. Token rewards depend on real coverage and demand in your area; many early IoT hotspots earned far less than hoped once rewards adjusted.
• Token-economics complexity across HNT/IOT/MOBILE and the burn-and-mint model takes effort to understand.
• Real-world adoption is the long-term question for any DePIN — coverage only matters if there's demand using it.

For the latest Helium news, see the Helium project page — or read What is Solana? for context on why DePIN gravitated here.