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Data Only Hotspots

Data Only Hotspots are eligible for Network Data Transfer Rewards but not Proof of Coverage Rewards.

Since Data Only Hotspots do not earn Proof-of-Coverage rewards, they may be permissionlessly added to the blockchain. Once added to the blockchain and with location asserted, they will earn $HNT when forwarding network data.

Rewards TypeData Only HotspotsFull & Light Hotspots
Network Data ForwardingYESYES
Proof of CoverageNOYES

Setup a Data Only Hotspot

Transactions & Cost

Every Hotspot on the blockchain goes through two transactions:

  • add hotspot: links the Hotspot's key (swarm_key) of a Hotspot to a user's wallet
  • assert location: provides GPS location, elevation (in meters), and dBi antenna output for the Hotspot

The fee schedule is as follows:

  • add data only hotspot: 1000000 DC ($10)
  • assert location: 500000 DC ($5)
info

Data Credits in your Helium Console organization cannot be used to pay blockchain onboarding and assert location fees for Hotspots. To onboard a Hotspot, you'll need to burn HNT for Data Credits to the wallet that owns the Hotspot.

Pre-requisites

You should setup a packet forwarder with the light hotspot client.

In addition, you should setup a CLI wallet as this is currently the only wallet that supports DIY Data Only Hotspots. Retail Data Only Hotspots from Hotspot Vendors can be onboarded using the Vendor IOS and Android apps.

Note: you can import a mobile wallet to the CLI. Another note: you should not install the CLI on your gateway

Add Hotspot

From a terminal on the device where the Light Hotspot client is installed, you need to generate the add hotspot transaction.

./helium_gateway add --owner WALLET_ADDRESS --payer WALLET_ADDRESS --mode dataonly

The output is a JSON object:

{
  "address": "11TL62V8NYvSTXmV5CZCjaucskvNR1Fdar1Pg4Hzmzk5tk2JBac",
  "fee": 65000,
  "mode": "dataonly",
  "owner": "14GWyFj9FjLHzoN3aX7Tq7PL6fEg4dfWPY8CrK8b9S5ZrcKDz6S",
  "payer": "14GWyFj9FjLHzoN3aX7Tq7PL6fEg4dfWPY8CrK8b9S5ZrcKDz6S",
  "staking fee": 1000000,
  "txn": "CrkBCiEBrlImpYLbJ0z0hw5b4g9isRyPrgbXs9X+RrJ4pJJc9MkSIQA7yIy7F+9oPYCTmDz+v782GMJ4AC+jM+VfjvUgAHflWSJGMEQCIGfugfLkXv23vJcfwPYjLlMyzYhKp+Rg8B2YKwnsDHaUAiASkdxUO4fdS33D7vyid8Tulizo9SLEL1lduyvda9YVRCohAa5SJqWC2ydM9IcOW+IPYrEcj64G17PV/kayeKSSXPTJOMCEPUDo+wM="
}

The txn field needs to be used as the input to the wallet command helium-wallet hotspot add. For example:

helium-wallet hotspots add CrkBCiEBrlImpYLbJ0z0hw5b4g9isRyPrgbXs9X+RrJ4pJJc9MkSIQA7yIy7F+9oPYCTmDz+v782GMJ4AC+jM+VfjvUgAHflWSJGMEQCIGfugfLkXv23vJcfwPYjLlMyzYhKp+Rg8B2YKwnsDHaUAiASkdxUO4fdS33D7vyid8Tulizo9SLEL1lduyvda9YVRCohAa5SJqWC2ydM9IcOW+IPYrEcj64G17PV/kayeKSSXPTJOMCEPUDo+wM=

After you verify the transaction, append the command with --commit to submit it to the API. Note that you need sufficient funds to cover both the transaction cost (65000 DC) and the staking_fee (1000000 DC). Thanks to the "implicit burn" mechanism, available HNT will be used to cover the transaction if you have insufficient DCs.

You can track the transaction progress by using the transaction hash at the following endpoint: https://api.helium.io/v1/pending_transactions/TXN_HASH

Once the transaction clears, you're done linking the Hotspot with your wallet.

warning

At this point, you will want to be certain that you've backed up the data only hotspot's keypair. Its location can be customized in the client's settings.toml, but by default, it's located at /etc/helium_gateway/gateway_key.bin

Assert Hotspot

To assert the Hotspot use helium-wallet hotspots assert

helium-wallet hotspots assert --gateway DATA_ONLY_HOTSPOT_PUBKEY --lat=37.7806295 --lon=-122.4008481 --mode dataonly

The DATA_ONLY_HOTSPOT_PUBKEY in the example from the previous section would be 11TL62V8NYvSTXmV5CZCjaucskvNR1Fdar1Pg4Hzmzk5tk2JBac.

--elevation and --gain can be also set. Use helium-wallet hotspots assert --help for more info.

After you verify the transaction, append the command with --commit to submit it to the API. Note that you need sufficient funds to cover both the transaction cost (65000 DC) and the staking_fee (500000 DC). Thanks to the "implicit burn" mechanism, available HNT will be used to cover the transaction if you have insufficient DCs.

You can track the transaction progress by using the transaction hash at the following endpoint: https://api.helium.io/v1/pending_transactions/TXN_HASH

Once the transaction clears, your Data Only Hotspot is ready to start earning for data transfered!

Data-Only Hotspot Setup Guides

info

Gateways running a Packet Forwarder and Miner is not considered a Light Hotspot and will never earn HNT.

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