What Is HNT Crypto?

So you’re into cryp­to and you just dis­cov­ered HNT? Let’s go through the basics so you can decide whether or not you want to jump into the world of Helium.

First, what is HNT cryp­to?
HNT stands for Heli­um Net­work Token. HNT can be trad­ed on cryp­to exchanges like Binance.us for what­ev­er you’d like (dol­lars, BTC, ETH, euros, etc), or it can be used to buy Data Cred­its on the Heli­um Net­work. A Data Cred­it is how a user (not nec­es­sar­i­ly a min­er) on the Heli­um Net­work pays to trans­fer data. Heli­um min­ers earn HNT for pro­vid­ing wire­less (radio) coverage. 

What is HNT min­ing?
HNT min­ing involves plug­ging in an HNT min­er to pow­er and the inter­net. The min­er will auto­mat­i­cal­ly begin min­ing HNT based on the radio sig­nals it sends and receives. The sig­nals it sends and receives depend heav­i­ly on three things: How many oth­er min­ers are near­by, how far away they are, and how many of them it can com­mu­ni­cate with. You can opti­mize the sig­nals your min­er sends and receives (and there­fore the HNT you earn) by using an after­mar­ket anten­na con­nect­ed to your min­er with anten­na cable, and get­ting the anten­na on top of your house (or build­ing, or mountain).

What is HNT worth?
HNT is a cryp­tocur­ren­cy with a volatile price. In the past year (May 2021 — May 2022) the price has been as low as $11 and as high as $60. You can check the cur­rent price here.

What is HNT used for?
HNT is used to buy Data Cred­its on the Heli­um Net­work. Data Cred­its are how you use the Net­work to trans­fer data. As of cur­rent writ­ing, the only wire­less net­work avail­able on Heli­um is LoRa (for Long Range). LoRa is designed for IoT or Inter­net of Things devices. While you may not have heard of the IoT, it’s one of the largest com­ing tech­nolo­gies that human­i­ty will use to help under­stand our world.

Why is Heli­um (and HNT) spe­cial?
Heli­um is the first and so far the largest cryp­tocur­ren­cy and blockchain project to have an actu­al use in the real world. You can use Heli­um today to track any­thing from pack­ages to pal­let to planes to paraglid­ers, or keep an eye on your crops, water pumps, bus­es, or even camels. While many blockchain projects are out there claim­ing to be use­ful, Heli­um is one of the few you can actu­al­ly use right now. 

How can I learn more about HNT?
This web­site was built to help you under­stand it! Check out our arti­cles on a Rough Guide to Heli­um, or Which Anten­na Should I Buy, or take one of my Heli­um Cours­es. If you’d like to join up with a group of Heli­um enthu­si­asts who are explor­ing and build­ing solu­tions using Heli­um, join the Gris­tle Crüe. We meet week­ly on Zoom to dis­cuss the lat­est in Heli­um, and top­ics range from how to opti­mize your min­er out to tax plan­ning and of course, build­ing an IoT business.