Some families in San Jose, California can’t access the internet because they belong to the low-income line. To ensure that at least a thousand of these families have access to the internet, the city is using Helium’s blockchain-based incentive model. This is the first city in the United States to create this initiative.
With the coming of the COVID pandemic, the number of those households that couldn’t use the internet increased. Many households have been unable to pay for any broadband packages.
A major way that the city is using to fund this internet program is through the crypto assets that are mined by Helium nodes.
The Helium nodes that make this possible are positioned around the city, and anyone can operate them. Tokens mined from these nodes can then be exchanged.
Every household that qualifies is given a $120 payment on a gift card that can be used to pay for the internet.
According to Yahoo! Finance,
“The cryptocurrency mined by Helium nodes fund the pilot program. Helium wireless hotspot token rewards will be used to pay for the grants for eligible residents.”
“According to the report, Helium’s low-energy network is designed only for devices like sensors and trackers. As a result, it cannot handle connections from laptops and smartphones.”
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