With that in mind, we at Cryptonary aim to highlight the good that crypto and blockchains can bring, the problems they can solve and the way the best ones can directly and dramatically improve people’s lives… while, of course, benefitting the investors that back the projects. That’s the great promise of crypto; to liberate, alleviate, and enrich, in many different ways.

So welcome to How crypto is changing the world, an occasional series of articles highlighting some of the most inspiring use cases from the technology we’re so passionate about.

Crisis, meet solution

Lebanon has had a crippled economy for many years, due to a great many political issues and widespread, endemic corruption. 

The country's central bank, Banque Du Liban, tries to support the Lebanese pound by providing US dollars, but the demand for dollars has drained reserves. Hardly surprisingly, the Lebanese pound experienced a sharp depreciation, losing over 80% of its value against the dollar since October 2019. Centralised finance (CeFi) is clearly not coming to the rescue here. Could crypto save the day?

No cryptocurrency flies in wearing a blue and red one-piece with a capital “S” on its chest, vanquishing all enemies and eliminating every problem. However, one project is providing badly-needed funds to its citizens, while at the same time building critical tech infrastructure in the struggling Middle Eastern country. Say hello to the Helium Network.

TLDR: The little project that could

• The Helium Network is a decentralised wireless communication platform that uses hotspots to provide coverage.
• Helium users, also known as "miners," can earn tokens for participating in the network.
• Helium offers an affordable alternative to traditional centralised infrastructure for internet access, especially in low-coverage areas.
• It is an elegant and unique solution, offering both connectivity and financial incentives.

You can find our analysis of Helium here. 

Not full of hot air

Helium ($HNT) tokens, similar to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, have a finite supply. This is capped at 223 million tokens, and is to be mined over a period of 50 years according to the halving schedule. 

As Helium grew in popularity elsewhere in the world, Lebanese people leapt on the project enthusiastically. Before long, the country had the most active Helium hotspots in the Middle East. When $HNT was trading at $2.50, the average hotspot in Lebanon was mining 5-8 HNT, translating to around $12.5-$20 per month. 

While this amount may not seem substantial, it represented good supplemental income in the highly challenged local economy. Better, $HNT could be sold for US dollars, providing a source of hard-currency fiat income. 

All this incentivised growth, and the network rapidly become more practical and usable to the general public. At its peak, when $HNT was priced at $55, each hotspot had the potential to generate staggering amounts of money. 

As a decentralised network, it also rapidly changed the way some people in the country lived, worked, and communicated. In the midst of its economic crisis, as the Lebanese Lira was losing value and capital controls limited access to funds, Helium helped provide financial services to the underbanked and unbanked populations. 

In turn, this provided economic empowerment, enhanced the sense of community thanks to the general usefulness of the network, and fostered transparency.

Good problems to have, but still problems

Since Helium isn’t Superman, it didn’t alleviate Lebanon’s economic or network infrastructure woes in one stroke. 

The Helium Network’s popularity had a downside – certain areas were built up with an overabundance of hotspots. This affected coverage, and it became crucial to ensure that there was a minimum of 0.5 miles between each hotspot. Many people made the mistake of buying too many antennas without doing proper research on their area and were not fully aware of the locations they should have targeted. 

Compounding that, the initial hardware investment was prohibitive for many in the local economy; an average hotspot could cost around $500 or more, and that’s without the antenna! 

Despite this, delays in delivery times became common since production was slow due to the intensifying demand. On top of all that, the scheduled halving of $HNT reduced token rewards by 50% - you can imagine the impact that had on the financial incentive.

On the project’s side, according to Forbes magazine, Helium was struggling to generate sufficient revenue from its network operations. 

Despite raising $250m from investors, the company only generated $92,000 in revenue from data moving across the network between June 2021 and August 2022. The vast bulk of its revenue ($53.3m), was generated from users registering new hotspots and authenticating other devices on the network.

As always, there are solutions

To address these issues, the developers behind Helium proposed migrating the network, plus all tokens, applications, and governance, to the Solana blockchain. To say that idea was met positively is an understatement - 81% of the community favoured this move. 

The migration will allow for more efficient transactions and interoperability. According to Scott Sigel, COO of the Helium Foundation, "Moving to the Solana blockchain allows us to focus our efforts on scaling the network as opposed to managing the blockchain itself."

In addition to the migration, Helium is also working with the Solana team on a branded phone, to be known as the Saga. It’s designed specifically to connect to Helium’s 5G network. This will help with take-up, as the owners of the hotspots are to get a reward for each user connecting to the network. 

On top of that, users will have another opportunity - they can also opt in to a token reward scheme by sharing data about coverage quality and helping identify Helium dead spots.

Meanwhile, Helium’s developers are continuing to innovate. Recently they advanced their technology by rolling out 5G small cell nodes. They anticipate their network will span 40,000 such nodes in the early part of 2023; if the effort is successful, Helium will begin to rival even the most powerful and well-capitalized traditional telecom companies.

Helium is a force for good because…

…it brings dramatic improvements in the economy and connectivity of under-served communities. 

Its decentralised network is more affordable, more secure, and more dependable than traditional networks. Meanwhile, with little capital outlay local users can earn $HNT by building and maintaining network nodes; $HNT is also swappable for desperately needed hard currency. 

And that is the shining ideal of cryptocurrency projects. Despite its struggles, Helium has made the lives of scores of Lebanese people infinitely better, and done so in a clean and efficient way. Even if it doesn’t ultimately succeed as a project or as a token, it has already had a powerful and positive impact on at least one part of the world. Disclaimer: This is not investment nor investment advice. Only you are responsible for any capital-related decisions you make and only you are accountable for the results.