Lebanese are abandoning and starting to abandon helium boxes as the cost of keeping them online becomes increasingly unsustainable and unprofitable, Wired report.
Lebanon has become a hotbed of crypto adoption and use as the country battles a collapsing economy and banking system. is at an all-time low.
However, despite the high adoption and usage of cryptocurrencies by the masses, the promise of profit and utility remains elusive, and the Helium network seems to be on its last leg in the country.
helium in lebanon
The country now boasts the most helium hotspots in the world, with over 6,500 boxes online. The next highest is the UAE, with less than half that number.
Lebanese have adopted helium heavily to cope with a collapsing economy and a near-collapsed banking system during the 2021 bull market. At the time, a single HNT token (the crypto that miners are paid to join the network) was worth about $50, and people said he could earn about $50 per day from mining his HNT. was expected.
In an economy where average wages for police and government officials have fallen from $800 to $100, Helium’s promise of a stable passive source of income far above the average monthly salary was an attractive opportunity for Lebanese.
However, as crypto winter began and the bears dominated the market, the token’s price fell dramatically from its all-time high in 2021. HNT has since lost more than 90% of its value, with him trading at $2.28 as of press time in March. 13.
The 2021 bull market promised payouts of $50 per day, but it will drop to cents in the ensuing months of 2022, with no prospects of recovery.
The network has recently been criticized for its tokennomics, with critics claiming the network unfairly profited insiders who acquired 25% of the total token supply. Lebanese, meanwhile, told Wired that helium looked like a “scam” and that the benefits were only showing up for early adopters, and everyone who joined late left with a bag.
Helium’s elusive benefits and utilities
Wired reports that mining helium is far more complicated than its marketing claims, with payments determined by a variety of factors. All of these factors have different effects on a device’s mining ability. Those interviewed by the press said IP addresses, radio frequencies, and altitude were some of the things that influenced mining payouts.
Additionally, mining payouts are also affected by network density. Having too few or too many devices in an area will negatively affect mining payouts. Lebanon has the densest networks. Sources told Wired that during Helium’s heaviest adoption period, some companies bought hundreds of devices and attempted to set up “mining farms.”
Meanwhile, the reward pot is finite, and the payouts get thinner and thinner as more helium boxes are placed. Some people hope that their investment will eventually be recouped, but many have started to cut their losses and give up on the network.
Helium argued that its Internet of Things will offer a variety of use cases and utilities to improve people’s daily lives, from delivering food by drone to tracking pets. But it’s been two years since he’s done it, and the network has made little headway toward those goals.
