When Helium launched in 2013, the pitch sounded almost absurd: pay regular people to deploy wireless hotspots, reward them with crypto tokens, and build a nationwide IoT network without touching a single cell tower lease. Thirteen years later, the network has 912,000 active hotspots across dozens of countries and a live cellular carrier with ~600k subscribers.

Helium's Proof of Coverage (PoC) mechanism solves a fundamental problem: how do you verify that a hotspot is where its operator claims, and that it is actually providing wireless coverage? PoC uses a system of cryptographic challenges between nearby hotspots to attest location and signal strength — without trusting any single participant. No GPS spoofing, no fake deployments earning rewards.

The real breakthrough came with Helium Mobile — a $20-30/month cellular plan built on a hybrid of T-Mobile's network and community-deployed 5G CBRS radios. By early 2026, approximately 600k US subscribers were paying real dollars for mobile service. This created genuine protocol revenue independent of HNT token price, separating Helium from the purely inflationary reward models of earlier dePIN projects.

Helium proved the core dePIN thesis at scale. See dePIN Tokenomics for why the distinction between inflationary yield and real revenue matters — and why Helium Mobile's subscriber base changed the calculus entirely for HNT investors and node operators.