Helium is a decentralized wireless network
Components
- WHIP - Narrowband wireless protocol, cheap, long range, low power, open source,
- Hotspots - provide wireless coverage, connect devices and routers
- Devices - connect to hotspots using WHIP
- Routers - internet deployed apps, recieve traffic from devices (via hotspots) and route them where they need to go. HA routers provided by the network but you can run your own
Concepts
- Proof of coverage - For proving hotspots are proving wireless coverage to an area
- Proof of serialization - To achieve time consensus, used to validate proof of coverage is real
- Proof of location - For proving hotspots are where they say they are, uses TDoA (whitepaper pg 12)
- Helium Consensus Protocol - Based off HoneyBadgerBFT, miners submit proofs which translate to scores for miners, best miners get elected to consensus group
Other Concepts
Full Node vs Light Client - full nodes have full history (routers), light clients only have a moving window of history (hotspots)
Useful Resources
- main site
- helium explorer (on my hotspot)
- whitepaper