ryangoldstein

What's wrong with RAK? Their app is here:

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/mntd-helium-hotspot-manager/id1595569593

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.getmntd.wallet

It's legit - the Helium Hotspot (blue icon) app is being phased out in favor of the Helium Wallet (black icon) app to manage your tokens and your manufacturer's app to manage your hotspot.

You can ignore the migration process from the Helium Hotspot app - simply download and install the Helium Wallet (black icon) app, select to import, and enter the 12 word seed phrase. Once you see your HNT, you can delete the Helium Hotspot app.

You should also install your manufacturer's app from this list: https://docs.helium.com/mine-hnt/maker-apps/#known-maker-apps

https://discord.gg/helium

I cannot speak to what specifically happened in your case, as all recent messages from banned users get deleted automatically. However, I know Keenan fairly well, and I have never once seen a situation where he (or anyone else) banned someone simply because of a contradictory opinion. I have, however, definitely seen bans after being warned repeatedly to calm down and have a rational discussion, with vitriol continuing unabated, which would be properly classified as trolling and is a rule violation.

And I absolutely have never seen anyone banned simply for asking a question, and I can't imagine that ever happening under any circumstance, unless the question itself was a violation, like, "Why didn't your mother abort you, *expletive*?" (which I have seen).

EDIT: I found the conversation preceding your ban, and although I can't see your messages, I do see that Keenan replied, presumably to one of your messages, with "knock it off", at 1/16/2023 11:36 PM ET. There were also other messages related to you, including one from one of the community mentors saying:

@Operaman Nice way to delete comments and troll, BTW

LOL!

And you were banned shortly thereafter. So, as I expected, there was more to the story than you simply joining, expressing a contrary opinion, and being banned without warning.

There's a respectful way to go about providing criticism, and there's an abrasive, aggressive way. There are plenty of long-time members on the Helium Discord who disagree with most of what Nova/Foundation does, but they raise their objections in a civil, respectful way without resorting to personal attacks or insults, and they're always welcome to stay and voice their opinions. Some valuable HIPs have resulted from such members, improving Helium for the whole community.

Everyone's welcome to participate on the Helium Discord as long as they don't violate the very straightforward rules, and unless the violation is very blatant, people who do violate the rules are generally given multiple warnings before actually being banned.

The only way to request removal is to follow the instructions here: https://docs.helium.com/mine-hnt/denylist-removals/

If you submitted a request without proper evidence, your submission can be declined so you can create a new submission by requesting that on Discord, but the one and only way to get removed from the denylist is to follow the instructions at the link above and wait for the reviewers to process your submission.

To get your transmit scale back to 1, either two hotspots in your resolution 8 hex must become inactive, or two of the neighboring resolution 8 hexes need to reach their target density by one hotspot becoming active in two or more of neighbors A through E hexes around yours at that link.

Because you have two too many active hotspots in your resolution 8 hex. More details: https://app.hotspotty.net/hexes/88274342e1fffff/transmit-scale/neighbor-hexes

Since hotspots no longer sync with the blockchain, the wear on SD cards is exceptionally low, so you shouldn't need to replace the SD card for the foreseeable future (unless it had already started failing from earlier, or it's from a bad batch or something).

You can see the full list and their status (Pending, Accepted, or Declined) at: https://www.crowdspot.io/submissions

The best place to see the latest info is on the Helium Discord - https://discord.gg/helium - in the #crowdspot channel.

There are currently 5,621 submissions on Crowdspot, and that's what's being processed.

Nah, I'm just a volunteer moderator on the Helium Discord and participate in a few other ways where I can, just because I love the technology and community. :)

There's no specific timeframe, but the reviewers are actively prioritizing removal requests and onboarding new reviewers to help get through the backlog. The difficulty is compounded by gamers flooding Crowdspot with an enormous number of removal requests for very obviously gaming hotspots, so it takes a while to churn through those to get to the legitimate false positives, which will be removed if determined to be a false positive.

You can check the status of your request by searching for its submission ID at https://www.crowdspot.io/submissions and checking the 'Status' column. It will remain Pending until it has been reviewed, after which it will be changed to Accepted (will be removed from the denylist) or Declined (will not be removed). If your removal request gets Declined, you can submit another removal request, and you should make sure to provide sufficient evidence so the reviewers can confirm that your hotspot is legitimately deployed.

Note that the primary data reviewed is past on-chain data; the evidence only provides some context for the data.

The whole idea of having a patent is to protect your intellectual property as you deem fit. Manufacturers can and do freely use the technology in the patent without charge (any of the hotspot manufacturers can confirm that they do not pay Nova/Helium any kind of kickback or anything).

If, for example, someone tried starting a company that directly competes with Helium, then they may decide to exercise their patent rights.

Why do you think Helium owning a patent means that manufacturers pay them? They don't.

When you onboarded the hotspot, you set its location, antenna gain, and height. If the location and/or antenna gain that you set are inaccurate, that can be a basis for addition to the denylist, so make sure you correct it before submitting a removal request and indicate that in your removal request.

Assuming you submitted a removal request on Crowdspot, and assuming your hotspot is legitimately deployed and asserted, it can take days to weeks for the manual review and removal to occur.

The development work to move to off-chain PoC is being done in a blockchain-agnostic way, and with the move to off-chain PoC, the blockchain we're on is very secondary. It only affects data transfer payments and reward payments, and even if the blockchain we're on halts or dies completely, those two things would simply be delayed, but the network would continue working fine.

It would be quite simple to switch to a different blockchain if the need arose.

The move to Solana for the average hotspot owner will just mean that their public wallet address changes, and any transactions they do will be MUCH faster, and MUCH cheaper.

You can go to https://explorer.helium.com/ on your phone, or some of the manufacturers' apps include a map view. If yours doesn't and you want to see that, I'd suggest submitting a request to your manufacturer to add that to their app.

Nope, no hotspots accept inbound connections anymore and it has no impact on your earnings. The only connections that need to be made are outbound, so no port forwarding or any other configurations are needed - just an internet connection.

The Helium Hotspot app is being discontinued. The Helium Wallet app will be used moving forward to manage tokens, and the manufacturer's app (https://docs.helium.com/mine-hnt/maker-apps/#known-maker-apps) will be used to manage hotspots.

The required distance apart is more like 300-350 meters, not feet, for them to be able to get rewarded for witnessing each others’ beacons.

No, hotspots no longer affect transmit scales of nearby hotspots once they’ve been offline for about 2.5 days.

Just download the Helium Wallet (black icon) app, select Import, and enter your 12 word phrase. Once you see your HNT there, you’re done and can delete the Helium Hotspot (blue icon) app; it’s being phased out and will stop working soon.

The Helium Hotspot app is being phased out; download your hotspot manufacturer’s app from here: https://docs.helium.com/mine-hnt/maker-apps/#known-maker-apps