Helium says its crypto mesh network is used by Lime and Salesforce — it isn’t - The Verge

Helium listed Lime and Salesforce as users of its crypto mesh network. Both companies deny it, raising doubts about who’s actually using the network.

On Friday, Mashable reported that Helium, a crypto project praised by The New York Times earlier this year and whose parent company is backed by investment firms like Andreessen Horowitz, had been misleading people about the companies it works with. Helium advertises on its homepage that Lime, the mobility company behind those electric scooters and bikes, uses its crypto-powered mesh wireless network. The company, however, told Mashable that it hasn’t had a relationship with the company since 2019, and that it had only ever done initial testing with Helium’s tech.

Now, Salesforce, whose logo appeared on Helium’s website right next to Lime’s, says that it also doesn’t use the technology. “Helium is not a Salesforce partner,” Salesforce spokesperson Ashley Eliasoph told The Verge in an email. When I followed up to ask about the graphic below, which appeared on Helium’s website, Eliasoph said that “it is not accurate.”

Helium’s website still listed Lime and Salesforce as customers hours after Mashable’s report released.

Sometime between 4:35 PM ET and 5:30 PM ET, Lime and Salesforce’s logos were removed from Helium’s home page. The Verge sent an email to Helium asking about its relationship with Salesforce at 4:48PM ET, which the company hasn’t responded to at the time of this writing.

Helium’s website no longer mentions Lime or Salesforce.

Unlike many crypto projects, it’s actually relatively easy to understand Helium’s core pitch (though there are absolutely ways to complicate it if you want). The idea is that you put a Helium hotspot — which could cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars — in your house, and the network’s users connect to it when they’re close by and need some data. The more data that goes through your hotspot, the more HNT (Helium’s cryptocurrency) you’d earn.

In short, it’s a sort of decentralized mesh network, where the individuals running the nodes are able to profit from providing their data. (It is worth noting, though, that using your home internet like this violates the terms of service agreements for many internet service providers.) The economics supposedly works because companies or individuals pay to use Helium’s network instead of, say, cellular data.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/29/23284330/helium-crypto-mesh-network-lime-salesforce-denials

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