Posts

Ready Player One Minute

Since it seems like my Helium business is building on itself, I've started a few other DeFi projects in the background to better understand the financial system of the Metaverse, but decided to tackle a project I've been thinking about for about half a year now, the Ready Player One Minute Podcast.   I don't want to jump straight into it, so I've decided to put together a Facebook group while I sort through the movie and book, in an attempt to identify all the Easter Eggs and references in the movie.  I actually started the process of pulling the movie apart, minute by minute, in November of 2021, but after a few months, realized the project was way bigger than I realized.  I'm doing this partly because I want to build another leg for my business, partly because I just love Ready Player One, partly because I love the 70s, 80s and 90s, partly because I grew up partially overseas and missed out on a lot of stuff in pop culture and this is a great excuse to go back and

November 2021

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This month has been up and down.  The value of the token is stronger than it's ever been.  Units are arriving from RAK, Nebra, Bobcat, Synchrobit and others, along with several new manufacturers to choose from; MNTD in particular making a splash by doing limited edition Gold painted hot spots.  They are also doing their orders in windows, so they try to limit the shipping delays other companies have seen.  With the increase in hot spots available, the eBay market has dropped, which is making me think about taking my monthly earnings and trying to get another one.  But, I also decided on a few locations to add antennas to, so I have a choice to make.  Get antennas for existing fleet units, or expand the fleet.  More than likely, I will get the antennas to try and optimize the units I've already paid for and get them generating more HNT, but I will look at eBay for any possible deals that stand out.  I don't bother with the Facebook groups, they are all overpriced and getting

October 2021

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October was interesting.  I was able to get the last 3 Nebra units installed, bringing my fleet size to 16.  Had to add in some shipping costs, a drive to New Hampshire and a drive to Nashville.  Also had to buy an antenna for the Belmont location which is still underperforming despite it's location.  Spent more time digging in to antennas to figure out what kinds there are and what would be most useful to me.  It's seems like the attitude is the bigger the better and to mount it to the roof.  But if my host is in an apartment and doesn't want some awkwardly huge bar sitting in their window, what are some more discreet options?  I'll be ordering some with this month's earnings to try and tune up the reach of the hotspots in their various locations.   A few announcements of cities starting to adopt the helium network and use it to their advantage came out, bolstering confidence in the token a bit, which was nice.  I think Oklahoma City and San Jose stuck out because

Sept 2021

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Able to fix a naming issue with the 4 hotspots I picked up from New Hampshire.  Unfortunately, it involved shipping stuff around.  I bought another OG hotspot to replace one of the RAKs in Bellmont, which I think I previously listed as Cambridge.  So that was $2000 I didn't want to spend to try and fix an issue.  That increases my Fleet size to 10 hotspots in total.  I also received the 6 Nebra units I ordered in Feb, only getting a few installed a few days before the end of the month.  By month's end, my fleet had grown to 13 hotspots.   Square Bamboo Antelope went live on 9/27 in Swansea, IL. Soft Hazelnut Snail went live on 9/28 in Edwardsvills, IL. Wild Red Scorpion went live on 9/30 in Belleville, IL. For Sept, I mined 44.17046363 HNT.  I sold 23 on Binance for $18.45, for a total of $424.45.   Witnesses made up 67.42% of the total mined, Challenges made up 9.87%, Beacons (PoC) made up 22.71% and packet transfers grew, but still haven't made a dent in the totals, so lo

August 2021

August 2021 the fleet expanded to 9 hot spots, adding coverage in Cambridge, MA, The Bronx, NY, O'Fallon, IL, Vancouver, WA and Belleville, IL as well as creating all new coverage in Colombus, OH.  The most important part to me is creating new coverage where there previously was none.  There is an additional perk to doing this for both Owner and Host in that, while in the building phase, earnings compound if a single fleet expands into new areas.  As it is right now, the current arrangement was rewarded a total earnings of 42.76254216 HNT. Compounding is interesting and something I should've thought of in the original planning when i started reaching out to folks.  In my excitement to start my own business, a business where I can pay my friends and family, I didn't consider it.  However, 3 hotspots are spaced out pretty well now in O'Fallon, IL and I started to witness compounding.  It's like a combo in Magic the Gathering, where cards and rules start to bounce off

Trip

While awesome, the trip where I was supposed to install equipment cost about $4,000.  I guess I can't count that as a business expense now since the business wasn't expanded.  Too expensive for a vacation.  Le sigh.  I'll pay for that later, I'm sure.

Delays

Appears that everything in the world is getting delayed do to social distancing constraints in the work place. There's a processor shortage, and microchip shortage, a labor shortage, etc... so, it looks like I won't be getting my equipment before I leave on a planned month long trip where I was going to be installing these devices in order to get the business rolling for summer, where I'll be staying in Kansas.