The end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 has seen a dramatic monthly decrease in the number of hotspots being added to the Helium network. There has also been an alarming increase of hotspots that are offline, 55% as of late February.
As a hobbyist Helium miner I find these numbers concerning . Although a hotspot can go offline simply because of losing an internet connection half the network’s miners being offline implies a much deeper problem.
One of the reasons is the deny list. According to Crowdspot.io there are over 157,000 hotspots offline due to being added to the deny list. This alone accounts for 15% of the total number of hotspots.
The Denylist is a list of Hotspot public keys and a cryptographic signature that have been identified not to be accurately contributing to Network coverage or are otherwise circumventing the good faith of the Network in an attempt to earn Rewards. Rewards gaming by dishonest actors, even as a small percentage of the Network, erodes Network integrity.
Examples include, but are not limited to: Cluster Packet Forwarders, Misasserted Locations, Misasserted Antennas, Multiple or Shared Antennas, Attenuators, Amplifiers and Data Credit Farming
Helium Network Validators optionally subscribe to the Denylist to block HNT…
