Nova Labs Partners with T-Mobile To Rollout Crypto-Powered 5G Service

Nova Labs, the company behind Helium network, a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) 5G wireless network that provides connectivity for random IoT devices, announced a five-year partnership deal with wireless carrier T-Mobile.

Based on the partnership, Nova Labs and T-Mobile will create a new 5G wireless service called Helium Mobile. The partnership will allow anyone subscribing to Helium Mobile to access Helium’s 5G network and T-Mobile’s wireless network throughout the US.

Helium Mobile will be a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service that offers two important economic differentiators from traditional services: plans will start at just $5 per month, and users can also optionally earn crypto token rewards for sharing data.

The Helium Mobile 5G wireless service is a big deal because it will allow users to opt into receiving the network’s MOBILE token rewards in exchange for providing anonymized data about their network usage. Boris Renski, co-founder and CEO of Nova Labs, said: “The service will treat such users as contributors, as the data will be used to monitor network quality and availability as it scales—but it’s purely optional.”

The Helium Mobile service will officially launch in the first quarter of 2023. Nova Labs said the service is designed with a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) approach in mind. The firm is working with smartphone makers to introduce “specialized, crypto-friendly cell phone devices that will be more efficient at validating network coverage and earning more Mobile token rewards for their users when compared to generic, BYOD phones.”

How Does It Work?

Although thousands of cryptocurrencies address a wide variety of use cases, relatively few are tapping into the new sector of the Internet of Things (IoT). Iota (MIOTA) is one of the most popular blockless platforms that connect devices with IoT. Helium also emerges as a blockchain-based project with the same use case but uses a different approach.

Helium is described as a blockchain-based network for IoT devices that uses nodes as Hotspots to connect wireless devices to the network. The Helium Token (the native cryptocurrency and protocol token of the Helium blockchain) powers the network and serves as a payout whenever Hotspots transfer connection data across the network.

Helium is working towards creating a reliable, decentralized, and global network for IoT devices that relies on the community of HNT holders. The network consists of nodes, i.e. Hotspots that are run by node operators (who are actually HNT holders). Hosting Hotspots and managing nodes, users are rewarded for participating in the network’s functionality.

At the time of writing, the price of Helium Token (HNT) was trading at US$4.36, down 0.98% for the last 24 hours, with a trading volume of $15.38 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

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Helium Network Inks Agreements with T-Mobile To Rollout Crypto-Powered 5G Mobile Service

Nova Labs, the company behind Helium network, a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) 5G wireless network that provides connectivity for random IoT devices, announced a five-year partnership deal with wireless carrier T-Mobile.

Based on the partnership, Nova Labs and T-Mobile will create a new 5G wireless service called Helium Mobile. The partnership will allow anyone subscribing to Helium Mobile to access Helium’s 5G network and T-Mobile’s wireless network throughout the US.

Helium Mobile will be a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service that offers two important economic differentiators from traditional services: plans will start at just $5 per month, and users can also optionally earn crypto token rewards for sharing data.

The Helium Mobile 5G wireless service is a big deal because it will allow users to opt into receiving the network’s MOBILE token rewards in exchange for providing anonymized data about their network usage. Boris Renski, co-founder and CEO of Nova Labs, said: “The service will treat such users as contributors, as the data will be used to monitor network quality and availability as it scales—but it’s purely optional.”

The Helium Mobile service will officially launch in the first quarter of 2023. Nova Labs said the service is designed with a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) approach in mind. The firm is working with smartphone makers to introduce “specialized, crypto-friendly cell phone devices that will be more efficient at validating network coverage and earning more Mobile token rewards for their users when compared to generic, BYOD phones.”

How Does It Work?

Although thousands of cryptocurrencies address a wide variety of use cases, relatively few are tapping into the new sector of the Internet of Things (IoT). Iota (MIOTA) is one of the most popular blockless platforms that connect devices with IoT. Helium also emerges as a blockchain-based project with the same use case but uses a different approach.

Helium is described as a blockchain-based network for IoT devices that uses nodes as Hotspots to connect wireless devices to the network. The Helium Token (the native cryptocurrency and protocol token of the Helium blockchain) powers the network and serves as a payout whenever Hotspots transfer connection data across the network.

Helium is working towards creating a reliable, decentralized, and global network for IoT devices that relies on the community of HNT holders. The network consists of nodes, i.e. Hotspots that are run by node operators (who are actually HNT holders). Hosting Hotspots and managing nodes, users are rewarded for participating in the network’s functionality.

At the time of writing, the price of Helium Token (HNT) was trading at US$4.36, down 0.98% for the last 24 hours, with a trading volume of $15.38 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

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81% of Americans Would be Motivated to Exercise if they Got Crypto Earnings, Study Shows

81% of Americans would be encouraged to work out if they were to receive cryptocurrency rewards, according to a survey by fitness platform FitRated.

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The study interviewed more than 1,000 people with distinctive investing experiences, body types, and backgrounds across the United States. It intended to gauge what would motivate people to exercise even in the metaverse.

 

Per the report:

“81% of people would be motivated to stay fit by earning cryptocurrency for exercising. 4 in 10 people would cancel their current gym for a fitness membership in the metaverse.”

In addition, 75% of Americans would be inclined to sign up for gym memberships using cryptocurrencies

 

Bitcoin emerged as the most preferred

 

According to FitRated:

“Bitcoin was the number one most desired currency that people requested in exchange for working out.”

Respondents preferred crypto rewards in Bitcoin (BTC) at 72.8% followed by Ethereum at 35.5%. Dogecoin (DOGE) rewards capped the top three at 34.6%, thus showing an inclination towards memecoins.

 

When it came to the type of exercise that would be consistently done for a year in exchange for cryptocurrency gains, pushups, bench presses, and squats were the most desired at 45.9%, 44.9%, and 41%, respectively. 

 

The study added:

“Evidently, cryptocurrency motivates the type of fitness that covers a lot of distance, i.e., walking (49.1%), cycling (47.2%), or running (39.3%).”

Interestingly, a previous survey by the National Bureau of Economic Research disclosed that money would not motivate people to hit the gym. Therefore, it seems cryptocurrency is changing this narrative. 

 

Crypto rewards are emerging as a favored marketing tool in different quarters. For instance, fast-food chain Burger King revealed plans to give away cryptocurrency prizes to its customers through the Robinhood brokerage platform. 

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Venmo enables users to automatically buy crypto with ‘cash back’ rewards

Paypal-owned payments firm Venmo has launched a new crypto ‘cash back’ feature that includes zero transactions on crypto purchases.

According to an Aug. 10 announcement, Venmo’s “Cash Back to Crypto” service went live yesterday and enables credit card customers to spend their cashback rewards on digital assets hosted on the platform.

Venmo offers its credit cardholders between 1% and 3% cash back on select purchases, and the new feature also includes free transactions on any crypto purchases —while conversion fees for swapping between assets are built into each monthly transaction statement

The payments firm currently supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash and customers can activate the new feature by selecting the rewards tab of the credit card home screen. Purchases can be done manually or set up automatically. Darrell Esch, senior vice president and general manager of Venmo said:

“The Cash Back to Crypto feature for the Venmo Credit Card offers customers a new way to start exploring the world of crypto, using their cash back earned each month to automatically and seamlessly purchase one of four cryptocurrencies on Venmo.”

Venmo currently has around 70 million users in the U.S. and the platform initially launched crypto trading in late April this year. According to Paypal’s second-quarter earning’s call on July 28, Venmo’s revenues have grown by 183% year-over-year and there has been strong adoption of crypto trading on the platform.

Related: Alchemy Pay to launch virtual crypto cards with Visa and Mastercard support

Paypal has been actively working to expand its crypto services since it first enabled crypto purchases back in November 2020.

On July 15 Cointelegraph reported that the firm increased purchasing limits of crypto to $100,000 per week. Later in the month during the Q2 conference the company announced plans to offer crypto trading to U.K. customers, while also teasing vague intentions to enter DeFi.