🔌 Helium Sold Out?

Good morning, happy Friday from Matt!

Yes, you read that right. Helium Mobile was sold off, and the community has opinions. Passionate conversations about how this sale impacts the Helium network are abundant on X.

Let’s take a closer look at the details and whether or not this community still thinks deploying is worth it. 🔍

🛰️ On the Radar

Other news to get you looped in:

• ⚙️ A Detroit shop just opened order books on a domestically produced drone motor with zero rare-earth requirements.

• ☀️ GLOW's 120th solar farm came online as the network expands to Florida rooftops, funded by token holders.

• 🧭 Helium named a new CEO and refocused the whole company on the network.

• 🌐 Helium is signing up regional ISPs in Mexico to extend coverage with zero capex, meaning more HNT burned for deployers.

Time to break it down. 🕺

📡 The Relay

This week on The Relay, Will and I talked about the hottest topics in distributed infrastructure, including Helium Mobile’s acquisition by Andrew Yang’s Noble Mobile. The change of hands ruffled some feathers, but we believe it’s for the best.

It allows the team to focus more on expanding the data offload network rather than an MVNO that loses money.

Our thesis is that infrastructure is sliding to the edges now that coordination and financing are becoming less of a pain point.

The Bitaxe on my desk proves it. An $80 device that sips $2 in electricity per month to contribute to the Bitcoin network.

Glow’s rapid growth and success proves it. Crowdsourced solar power is opening access to otherwise unfunded energy projects.

The Helium network’s ability to offload data for multi-billion-dollar telecom companies proves it.

Helium Mobile has been the stress test for the decentralized infrastructure thesis, and the community is genuinely torn on it. The anxiety is understandable, especially among deployers.

But the important thing to note is that the network remains operational and earning.

What changed hands was the consumer phone brand, the piece that was losing money. The Helium network, those community-owned hotspots, never moved. They're still earning, still providing the wholesale coverage carriers pay for, all under the DAO. 

The Helium network was never anyone’s to sell, and deployer rewards keep flowing just as they did before, arguably better with the new HIP proposal.

The network operates on the same principle as the Bitaxe on my desk: an individual can deploy a device and contribute to a larger network, earning in the process.

Relay Takeaway: When a network is owned at the edges, it isn't the company's to sell. That's the whole point of building infrastructure this way.

🛰️ Catch up on this week's Relay broadcast

🔊 Signal Boost

A couple more stories that fit the pattern of infrastructure moving to the edges.

⚙️ Modal Motors: A Detroit outfit just opened order books on the OR3627-900kV, a drone propulsion motor that's non-rare-earth and built on a 100% domestic supply chain, so it dodges the Chinese rare-earth chokepoint, not just the assembly line. It's aimed at Group 2 defense drones, deliveries starting Q4. The why-now: the FCC added drone motors to its national-security Covered List in December, making American-made propulsion mandatory overnight. Motor City, back to making motors.

🌞 GLOW: Glow's 120th solar farm just joined the protocol, its first in Florida, funded by GLW holders who delegated $11,621 to a single rooftop and earn rewards over the next 100 weeks. Same Bitcoin-style incentive engine as my Bitaxe, just pointed at kilowatts instead of hashes. Power to the edges, panel by panel.

👋 Signing Off

The grid, the network, the supply chain: all of it runs better when it's owned at the edges, by the people plugged into it. That's the whole bet. 🔑

If this one resonated, forward it to someone who'd get it. Tune into The Relay live on X, and follow Matt and Will for more between issues.

Catch you next Friday! 👋