Mining for the Masses: Introducing the RAK Hotspot Miner
By: Frank Mong
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, IoT, Telecommunication, Mining

Since June 2019, Helium Hotspots have been flying off the shelves across North America and Europe. With each new batch of Helium Hotspots we make, we seem to keep selling out, and The People’s Network continues to expand at a pace we couldn’t have predicted. Now in over 1,800 cities with 8,600+ Hotspots live and thousands more coming online in the next few weeks, we are the fastest-growing wireless network, and the momentum is not stopping here.

When we set out to build The People’s Network, we envisioned a world where anyone could take our open-source technology and bring next-generation wireless devices to market to build a truly decentralized infrastructure where Helium is not the sole manufacturer.

Today that vision is a reality.

The First Third-Party Miner Joins The People’s Network

Through a joint partnership with RAKwireless and Cal-Chip Connected Devices, we’re thrilled to share today the launch of the RAK Hotspot Miner — the very first third-party device that is LongFi compatible, providing hundreds of square miles of wireless coverage and the ability to mine $HNT on the Helium Blockchain just as Helium Hotspots do today.

The best part?

It’s only $249.

The RAK Hotspot Miner is currently available for pre-order in North America and will ship in October. You can be the first to get your RAK Hotspot Miner here.

The TLDR on the RAK Hotspot Miner is as follows:

LongFi compatible (Mines $HNT and supports LoRaWAN 1.0.x)

Fully participates in all Helium mining activities

Supported on native Helium Hotspot App available on iOS and Android

Includes Tier 1 support from the Helium Team

No fees to add the RAK Hotspot Miner to the Helium Blockchain and assert its location (2 free asserts)

Easily onboard your RAK Hotspot Miner with the Helium Hotspot App!

In the future, we expect to see our partners at RAKwireless and Cal-Chip Connected Devices expand to new markets, including Europe and Asia.

“Helium’s growth trajectory is pointing to one outcome, and that’s the realization of a decentralized wireless network,” said Ken Yu, CEO of RAKwireless.

The exponential growth of The People’s Network has proven that this crazy idea works, and it’s growing fast, driving others in the industry to quickly start building on top of it. By enabling others to build and distribute compatible Hotspots, The People’s Network is now even more affordable for the masses to participate in a decentralized wireless economy.

“Since the network went live last year, there continues to be an ongoing demand from people to join and build the network. We are honored to be part of scaling this vision by introducing a new device that will drive the network further at an optimal cost,” TJ Rancour, President of Cal-Chip Connected Devices, a division of Cal-Chip Specialty Products, Inc.

The RAK Hotspot Miner is one of the many amazing innovations that will come out of a decentralized wireless network for all that is affordable, open, and ubiquitous.

The David v. Goliath of Connectivity

Yesterday, Amazon announced updates on their plans for Amazon Sidewalk, a long-range wireless network that will use your Ring devices to create a distributed network.

As written by Stacey on IoT, the rationale behind this 10+ year initiative from Amazon is the exact same rationale that drives Helium. But there’s a big difference.

Helium and The People’s Network are growing an open-source ecosystem that is decentralized and includes everyone, from the network builders to the network users, developers, manufacturers, distributors, and more. Amazon is not. Instead, Sidewalk will be owned, operated, and controlled by Amazon.

This is the true David v. Goliath story with high stakes that will not only impact who controls your networks and connected devices. This is all about your data. Do you want Amazon to control your data privacy? With all of the enthusiasm and traction we’ve seen from our community over the past year, we’re confident at Helium that a more open, decentralized ecosystem owned and operated by the people is the future. We believe you should own your data privacy.

We hope you join us in the fight against big tech to give anyone and everyone control of their connectivity and privacy.

#ThePeoplesNetwork