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I want to hear your opinion on this.

I went to a place that happened to have deployed a Helium base.

My phone connected automatically and started using it for the internet. It was seamless and saved my battery. I was connected automatically because my wireless provider has a deal with Helium.

So I had a good experience as a result.

The business that deployed this Helium node made money because of the traffic they are getting. Paid by the users, in this case me. I did not pay, but my carrier did.

The business owner then sold the Helium tokens for Bitcoin.

My question is, where do we stand on useful shitcoins? 😂

#asknostr

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Discussion

The Daniel 🖖 2w ago

TKay 2w ago

🤷‍♂️

It’s just a WiFi hotspot.

The business owner receives shitcoins for providing the service.

Derek Ross 2w ago

But why do you have to use a shitcoin for this? Why can't you use Tollgate?

marcan0 2w ago

You're right. I'd rather use Tollgate every day.

But Helium has loads of devices out in the wild, and agreements with mobile carriers. Not to mention a UX that abstracts all of this from everyone.

That level of biz dev is providing more value (today) than cashu/tollgate is.

We can get there. But useful-now is better than perfect-someday 99% of the time.

TKay 2w ago

Yeah, I did not do anything, but these are apparently out there.

marcan0 2w ago

I was into helium for a while before I saw the light 😂

Derek Ross 2w ago

Sometimes we have to build the world that we want, and that includes not using shitcoins and making excuses for using them. I'm more principled in some areas than others and I do a lot things that some might consider dumb out of principle. I would not use a carrier that supports Helium. I would not connect to a Helium WiFi network. Perhaps in an emergency, but that would be it.

TKay 2w ago

Agreed.

I personally did not choose this.

This happened automatically 🤷‍♂️

Good chance (1/3) you are already on the carrier that supports helium just like I am 😅

marcan0 2w ago

get a load of this guy. so virtuous. i wish i was as cool and righteous as him.

Derek Ross 2w ago

you can be. work hard.

TKay 2w ago

I’m not. The owner of the business does, my phone connected automatically.

I’m not paying for it. But the business owner is getting paid in Helium tokens.

Also I don’t know what is Tollgate?

Derek Ross 2w ago

Minus the connecting automatically via agreements with your carrier, it's similar for the merchant, except they get paid in bitcoin.

https://tollgate.me/

TKay 2w ago

Yeah I looked it up after you mentioned it.

I think the connecting automatically part is the magical thing though.

Internet is free these days, a toll gate is just an unnecessary friction point.

Tollgate will only work if the AP is at a remote location with no other services around it.

Still pretty cool concept. Thanks. TIL.

U-P-G-R-A-Y-E-D-D 2w ago

My brother in Satoshi, PBUH, this is haram.

Dikaios1517 2w ago

The token used is arbitrary. They could have used Bitcoin for this if they had been inclined. Using Helium instead was a development choice that had nothing to do with its "usefulness."

I3_I2_I_Z 2w ago

Exactly - The way I see it now - If they are using their own coin, it's because they want control via their own money printer.

TKay 2w ago

100% token not needed.

As nostr:npub18ams6ewn5aj2n3wt2qawzglx9mr4nzksxhvrdc4gzrecw7n5tvjqctp424 said, if you want to offer a hotspot running a Tollgate is better principally.

Dikaios1517 2w ago 💬 1

Tollgate is a different product entirely, since it is the user paying the wifi provider directly. There's no reason someone couldn't create something similar to what you described, where the cell phone company pays the wifi provider in Bitcoin whenever their customers use the wifi, though.

I3_I2_I_Z 2w ago

What's the meme? Something like "If your coin has a CEO, you're going to have a bad time."

Judge Hardcase 2w ago

That's actually pretty cool.

I bet your carrier isn't actually paying anything themselves - and that Helium is footing the bill just to bootstrap getting their network off the ground.

Regardless, this just seems like another example of shitcoinery that may prove to be useful for a while until it eventually realizes its destiny of being obsoleted by a better bitcoin-powered alternative. (clearly, the Helium base operator in this case would prefer the bitcoin version - all else being equal).

TKay 2w ago

Very possible.

And I agree with your point 100%. I actually still don’t understand the need for it. The only thing that I found interesting is that my carrier has the password and got me on the network without anything needed from me.

Why there is a token… that’s just shitcoinary 😂 it will probably go away, because it really isn’t any needed in this situation.

Judge Hardcase 2w ago

I suppose it's plausible that even if your carrier is paying for it in Helium, it could be cheaper than whatever they have to pay to use cell towers? 🤷 Then, of course, there's the use-case where there are no cell towers.

How did you even know you were using it?... Was there a popup notification on your phone at all? or did you just happen to glance at your wifi connections? I'm just curious how much it may be being used without customers even realizing it.

TKay 2w ago

I opened my phone to connect to wifi. 😅

Only to find out I was already connected.

No notification, nothing.

Judge Hardcase 2w ago

Neat!... and maybe a little creepy. 😂

TKay 2w ago

True 😅😅