How Helium’s Crypto Infrastructure Is Quietly Replacing Mobile Networks

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Amir Haleem, CEO and co-founder of Helium. Helium has a decentralized wireless network powered by community-run hotspots that supports IoT devices and mobile coverage. Today, its WiFi network boasts over 93,500 hotspots across the U.S. and Mexico, and the network serves around 1 million daily users. Helium has also secured major partnerships with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Telefónica.
They discuss how Amir and Napster’s Shawn Fanning co-founded Helium in 2013, transforming it into a people-powered connectivity model that now rivals traditional telcos in prepaid signups. Amir explains the economics behind hotspot mining and how the Helium Mobile network offloads carrier data with a 555% increase in offloaded traffic last quarter. You’ll also hear why Helium chose to hide the crypto in consumer-facing products, and how its Zero Plan, a free phone plan in the U.S., is built on top of their infrastructure and attracting thousands of new users every day.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
1:26 Amir and his co-founder’s journey: Napster to Helium
5:48 Why telecom is broken and ripe for disruption
8:59 How Helium grew to1M+ users
12:11 AT&T and T-Mobile partnerships explained
15:19 The new economics of hotspot mining
18:06 Who runs hotspots and why crypto stays hidden
22:18 Zero Plan outpacing big 3 carriers
25:05 DeWi versus utility and carrier offload
36:05 Expansion with Telefonica in Mexico
42:20 Final advice from Amir

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