Helium was founded in 2013 by Shawn Fning, Amir Haleem, and Sean Carey with the mission of making it easier to build connected devices. With Helium Hotspots, anyone can earn cryptocurrency by building a wireless network in their city and creating a more connected future.
Helium is a peer-to-peer wireless network for low-power IoT devices to communicate with the Internet. Utilizing Hotspots and data transmitters for other IoT devices, network maintainers can pass Proof of Coverage Challenges to prove their contribution to the network and get rewarded with HNT tokens. Proof of Coverage is a proof-of-work (POW) algorithm that uses electromagnetic waves to verify whether Hotspots provide services.
HNT tokens can generate Data Credits, which are used to pay for information and token transfer fees. The Helium network utilizes a HoneyBadgerBFT based mechanism to reach network consensus.