# Helium (HNT): D-Score 31/100 — Centralized Leaning

**BlockIndex D-Score: 31/100 (Centralized Leaning).** Helium (HNT) is a Layer 2 cryptocurrency using N/A consensus. Helium (HNT): Community-built DePIN token on Solana enabling high-throughput hotspot incentives and carrier partnerships.

_Source: https://blockindex.ai/coin/hnt · Data by BlockIndex.AI · Updated 2026-06-19_

## D-Score breakdown (0-100, higher means more decentralized)
| Component | Score |
| --- | --- |
| Overall D-Score | 31 |
| Node distribution | 0 |
| Initial distribution | 0 |
| Governance | 16 |
| Age and history | 15 |
| Autonomy | 0 |

## Key facts
- Layer: Layer 2
- Consensus: N/A (N/A)
- Launch: Fair Launch (2019)
- Founder: Amir Haleem, Shawn Fanning, Sean Carey
- VC funded: No
- Max supply: 223,000,000
- Circulating: 186,321,438 (83.6%)

## Market data (as of 2026-06-19)
- Price: $0.26
- Market cap: $48.8M
- 24h volume: $3.39M
- 24h change: -9.80% · 7d change: -13.94%

## About
Helium (HNT) is a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) that began from a vision to democratize wireless infrastructure by incentivizing community participants to deploy and operate Hotspots. Founded in 2013 and launched publicly with HNT and the Helium Hotspot network in 2019, Helium built a distinctive model where operators earn HNT tokens for providing coverage and transferring data for Internet of Things (IoT) devices and, more recently, consumer mobile services. The project is sponsored operationally by Nova Labs, Inc., and governed via Helium Improvement Proposals (HIPs) and a multi-DAO structure that includes the Helium DAO and subDAOs for IoT and Mobile. Over time Helium has expanded product offerings to include Helium Plus and Helium Mobile, and has pursued commercial partnerships with carriers and enterprises to scale real-world demand.

Technically, Helium originally ran its own specialized blockchain for hotspot accounting and reward distribution but completed a major migration of token accounting to the Solana network on April 18, 2023. That migration was pursued to obtain significantly higher throughput and much lower transaction costs; documentation and case studies in the source material indicate TPS improvements from roughly 10 TPS on legacy systems to over 1,600 TPS on Solana for token accounting and hotspot-related transactions. The current HNT token exists as a Solana SPL token (contract address referenced in on-chain explorers) while core Helium services continue to operate a DePIN application stack for hotspot discovery, reward calculation, and on-device connectivity. Governance activity and protocol changes are coordinated through HIPs, and many governance decisions in 2022–2025 reflect a shift toward subDAO autonomy, tailored economic adjustments, and feature rollouts that respond to operator economics.

In practical use, Helium empowers individuals and small operators to deploy Hotspots that provide IoT connectivity (LoRaWAN) and participate in the network economics by earning HNT. Network usage is monetized through Data Credits: users or services pay Data Credits (which are created by burning HNT) to send traffic, creating an on-chain burn mechanism that links demand to token scarcity. Expansion into mobile (Helium Mobile) and Helium Plus (enabling Wi‑Fi infrastructure to contribute) broadened potential utility paths and introduced carrier partnerships and products aimed at driving meaningful data usage on-chain. These real-world integrations and user acquisition initiatives—coupled with an active governance mechanism—make the project one of the more visible DePIN efforts in the market.

Helium’s tokenomics are explicitly defined in public sources: a hard cap of 223,000,000 HNT, circulating supply of roughly 186.32M (as of the provided snapshots), no pre-mine, and a two-year halving schedule for emission adjustments. The network’s economic design couples operator rewards with a burn mechanism for data usage, aiming to balance inflationary emissions with usage-driven burns; recent governance proposals (2025 release proposals) focused on fine-tuning reward parameters, SOL rent subsidy mechanics, and other economic levers to improve operator economics and reduce friction in reward claims. Governance is on-chain and token-weighted, with active proposal flows and recorded majorities passing several release proposals throughout 2025.

Looking forward, Helium’s strategic focus is to scale real-world adoption through partnerships and product refinement—Helium Mobile and Helium Plus being central to that strategy—and to continue using on-chain governance to adjust parameters that affect operator incentives and user-facing costs. Migration to Solana removed a key scalability constraint for on-chain accounting and enabled a richer set of on-chain interactions, but operator economics remain sensitive to protocol parameter changes and costs associated with Solana rent and transaction fees. Overall, Helium presents a mature DePIN project with significant operational deployments, active governance, and an evolving roadmap aimed at translating network utility into sustainable token demand.

## Links
- Website: https://www.helium.com/
- Whitepaper: N/A
- GitHub: https://github.com/helium

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About the D-Score: BlockIndex.AI rates decentralization from 0 to 100 across node distribution, initial distribution, governance, age and history, and autonomy. Methodology: https://blockindex.ai/dscore