A Helium miner is easy to set up and comes with everything you need. It’s simple, straightforward, low-energy, and did we mention simple? But there are ways to optimize its performance, to get the most out of your HNT mining journey.
What do we mean by optimizing? Is it related just to position, or are there other factors to consider? Learn everything you need to know about a successful Helium miner setup in this blog. In today’s blog, we will:
- Recap the basics about what a miner actually is
- Explain how the distance between miners impacts their performance
- Explain how you can get into mining today
To Recap: What Is a Helium Hotspot?
A Helium hotspot miner sends out a radio-powered signal and thereby provides LoRaWAN IoT (Internet of Things) wireless coverage. The security of the network’s coverage is guaranteed by the Helium and their proof of coverage consensus mechanism that uses a blockchain to validate 800k hotspots providing wireless coverage to the Helium network.
Individual Helium hotspots are assigned “proof of coverage” tasks, where beacons are sent, challenged, and witnessed, proving legitimately IoT network coverage is being provided, and rewarding participating hotspots with HNT crypto rewards.
How much you can mine with a hotspot can be optimized by positioning it in the best possible place to make sure it can communicate with the most hotspots in your area.
Why Position Matters
Hotspot miners need a certain distance from nearby hotspots to build an efficient network. That’s why you should never operate multiple hotspots from the same house or apartment building.
When placing in your home, you want to place the hotspot next to the window and as high up in your home as possible. You need a strong internet connection, so make sure you’re not too far from the router if you’re connecting through WiFi instead of ethernet. Also, make sure you have securely connected the plug as you need a steady power supply.
If your really serious, you can look into placing your hotspot outdoors as there’s lots of thied partly outdoor enclosures you can invest in. Just do your research if you’re up fr something like that.
You can operate multiple Helium miners, as long as they aren’t in the same place – if they are too close to one another, their earning capabilities are severely limited. You want them to be 300 feet or more apart. This is to bring efficiency to the coverage map by maximizing the reach of the decentralized wireless network without overpopulating a given area.
Whether you’re in a more rural environment or in the bowels of the city, your hotspot performance is linked to the other hotspots around you. In a dense city, closer hotspots may result in more witnesses and fewer challenges than in the country.
Using the Helium Mobile App, it’s easy to manage your miner. It’s designed to work with all our approved CoolSpot Helium hotspot models including Rak, Merry IoT, Finestra, and SensaCap. These devices all feature an external antenna, and most of them can be upgraded to a larger stock antenna, which can increase your earnings, but Emrit does not endorse anyt upgrade that doesn’t comply with FTC regulations so do your research. You can update your antenna dbi on the Emrit dashboard.
Other Factors to Consider
The best part about your miner is that the average Helium hotspot runs quietly, at nearly zero cost in terms of energy use. A standard LED light bulb uses 10x the energy needed for mining helium. And you don’t see a lightbulb transmitting as much data!
The Right Choice in Miner
Since the approval of HIP19, the Helium Improvement Proposal 19, a hotspot can be any device that has received community approval from the Helium alliance. That means a whole range of third-party products is available to new miners. Validating wireless coverage, delivered straight from your home.
Indeed, there are currently 30 approved third-party hotspot devices available, all with various baseline settings and hardware features. The real barrier of entry to the Helium network is the cost of these devices. Though some are cheaper than others, they can cost $500-$700– and the payout from the Helium network is by no means immediate or guaranteed.
But building “The People’s Network” requires people who are able to host miners in the best locations that expand the network. Here is where Emrit comes in: to address the disconnect between high cost and a need for people to continue to expand the Helium network.
Why Emrit Makes Sense: The Emrit Hosting Model
As the leading Helium hosting company, Emrit makes mining HNT more accessible by first subsidizing the cost of a Helium hotspot. In return you split the HNT rewards with Emrit, where you can get as high as 70% share of the HNT a miner earns. Multiple plans are available, which start at just $99 USD, compared to $500-$700USD to purchase a miner, which usually comes with a waitlist because of the supply chain shortages that still persist. Once you apply to be a host, Emrit will qualify your location to determine its earning potential – so not every location qualifies. But if you’re approved, in addition to the subsidized miner, Emrit also provides tech support, up to 2 free repairs over 3 years, and an active Discord community where you can get mentorship and advice on mining.
Once you receive the miner in the mail, you can use the Emrit mobile app, dashboard and tools to get setup, create a wallet to collect and store your HNT earnings, and keep track of your miners earnings. And if you have multiple locations that have high earning potential, great! You can order up to 15 devices. Emrit also has a referral program that gives you 5% of a referee’s rewards for 12 months.
Summary: No Matter the Distance, Emrit Can Help
There are countless reasons to get involved with Helium today: the future profit margins that could await you, the potential of the enterprise, and the countless ways in which becoming part of Web3 makes sense as a 21st-century citizen of the world!
Emrit’s profit-sharing model of subsidized infrastructure distribution allows you to become part of the Helium community as little as $99. That opportunity can set you up with a slowly accumulating wallet of HNT that will only appreciate in value as the network continues growing. In today’s blog we:
- Re-Introduced the Miner to understand why distance matters
- Explained how miners interact over distances
- Made the Emrit Pitch: Get mining for less!
If you are interested in joining Emrit, head to our homepage, and become a member for free today! Helium is only our first project – we’re excited to take you along for the ride as we delve into the world of Web3!
