Is helium mining profitable in 2022?

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What does Helium do?

Let's start with what the Helium network does. The Helium network provides wireless coverage around the world. People and companies can then use that wireless coverage for various things, like tracking trucks, pallets, or even animals. Of course, the Helium applications go way beyond that, but for now we're seeing growth of usage in these applications. As a user and hotspot owner, you get paid in HNT/MOBILE tokens for providing the wireless coverage these applications use.

Are you lost at this point? I hope not! HNT and MOBILE, what are those? These are Helium's cryptocurrencies that you get for providing wireless coverage. Right now, Helium has two types of currencies. Here they are:

5G = MOBILE tokens. You earn MOBILE for mining the 5G network.

LoRa = HNT tokens. You earn HNT (soon to be converted to IOT tokens) for mining the LoRa network.

Think of these tokens like Bitcoin. You take your HNT and MOBILE and can trade them for real money like USD and CAD. Or, you can spend them directly on the network to use the data coverage.

To start making money by mining Helium, you must buy a Helium hotspot. 

What is a Helium hotspot?

A Helium hotspot is the brain of the Helium network. They're basically little boxes that antennas connect to. Together, this is what provides coverage to the wireless network. Hotspots (or miners) are small machines, about the size of your internet router. They all earn you the same amount of money, so don't worry too much about which you choose. But you will need to pick which Helium hotspot to buy, so here are some you can choose from:

LoRa only:

Sensecap M1 ($519) - This is probably the LoRa best miner, IMO. It's built like a tank and gets updates all the time.

Bobcat 300 ($429) - It's a decent machine, nothing special about it. It just works.

LoRa and 5G:

Bobber 500 ($999)- It's an ok machine. Nothing extraordinary. It just works.

FreedomFi ($999) - Nice all-metal construction that acts as a very effective heatsink. My favorite 5G machine right now.

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LoRa Profitability

The Helium Profitability of your miner will be the same whether it's a Bobcat 300 or Sensecap M1. What makes a big difference will be the antenna installed on your roof. Customers can opt-in and install a much stronger antenna on their rooftops. In almost every case, this will boost your earnings. With the current price of HNT being $1.92, You can earn about $0.10 a day using the stock antenna included with your Helium hotspot. You can upgrade your antenna to an outdoor setup that will run you around $100 extra. It should give you better rewards of about $0.50 - $1 daily. Those numbers are based on my current earnings. I earn about $0.80 a day with an outdoor antenna. To find out how much you can accurately make, go on the Helium Explorer. Then type in your address and click on a hotspot in your hex.

We can see this hotspot here is making $0.10 a day. Ultimately, it will depend on the location of your deployment and price of the hotspot you purchase. Use the explorer for the most accurate prediction about helium mining profitability in your area.

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5G LoRa Earnings Summary

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Daily earnings: $0.10 - $0.80 cents, Monthly earnings: $3 - $24, Yearly earnings: $36 - $288

So, Is helium mining profitable in 2022? 

The best ROI depends on what price you can find the units for. For example, we sell MerryIOT for $150, Which should have an ROI in half a year if we use the average. 

The last key thing to remember is the Helium token price. Not long ago, $HNT saw a top of over $50. This is 25x the current price. Another bull market run could send the HNT price even higher, meaning all your rewards will be worth many multiples more.

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5G Profitability

The Helium Profitability for Helium 5G is excellent. Overall, Helium 5G is the same idea as LoRa. Except, you put even fancier radios (we will call them antennas, not to confuse you) on your rooftop. They are called Baicells 430h (very beefy-looking radios/antennas). They are about 10 pounds each! Serious stuff.

Is Helium 5G profitable to mine? With Helium 5G mining, earnings are excellent. However, to start mining Helium 5G, the cost is a little steeper than LoRa. A bundle starts at $2500. It might seem like a lot, but once you see the reward numbers below, you'll see why the investment makes sense.

Currently, as of Dec 22, 2022, the MOBILE token price is estimated at around $0.0007.

A $2500 5G bundle will earn you around 25,100 MOBILE tokens daily. Multiply that by $0.0007, and you're earning $17.57 PER DAY! These are crazy numbers… $527 per month. If the price stays the same, we're talking about ROI in less than five months, then you're in pure profit.

There is more to this. The price of $0.0007 is just an over-the-counter price being traded at on group chats. The official MOBILE token still needs to be listed on an exchange to be sold. Once this happens, we are expecting the price to shoot past $0.002 per MOBILE token. That completely changes the ROI numbers… we are talking about potentially $50 a day with ROI in 50 days!

How much can you earn mining helium? At least with Helium 5G: Lots.

I still need to mention the best part. Those numbers are from the $2500 bundle. You can attach three+ radios (antennas) to one hotspot, therefore tripling your rewards.

A $5499 bundle has three radios (antennas). Did you do the math already? Yep, they earn 75,300 mobile per day! So $52.71 each day with an estimated $0.0007 ROI in 104 days! Using the $0.002 estimate for MOBILE, that's $150 PER DAY! ROI in 36 days!

So you made it this far. Impressive. I saved a best for last.

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How to Maximize Helium Rewards

To maximize Helium Profitability, there are several things I will go over again.

On the LoRa side:

To maximize your Helium profitability for LoRa, tou will need to upgrade to an outdoor antenna. This is an additional $100. The goal is to put it as high as possible on your roof or wherever possible with your setup. The signal from the antennas goes very far. I'm talking about 100km. The higher it is, the more coverage you provide, and in turn, the more rewards you will earn.

On the Helium 5G side:

The exact details still need to be discovered on how to maximize Helium Profitability in 5G. The general rule of thumb we are suggesting to people do now is to mount the radio (antenna) as high up as possible. The difference now is these Baicells radios vs LoRa ones. Baicells need to be pointed in the direction with the least obstructions to maximize how much coverage the radio will provide. Suppose you have no choice but to point at a house or trees: pick the trees. It's easier for the signal to pass through them into foot traffic where people can connect, map your radio, or pay to use it for coverage.

Let's end this with the question we started with.

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Is helium mining profitable in 2022?

Short answer: Yes.

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