Location spoofing has been a problem for the Helium network from the start. Scammers are tricking the Proof-of-Coverage algorithm and earning big rewards for their hotspots while everyone knows what’s going on. Helium’s (temporary?) solution, launched in January 2022, is a denylist with known fake hotspots, relying on the public to request Additions or Removals to the list. The list was growing rapidly, and included up to 7% of all Helium hotspots at the end of Feb 2022. Then on 9 March 2022 over 90% were taken off the denylist, with this explanation. For what it's worth, that's very soon after the Series D funding was announced on 19 Feb 2022. The list continues to grow, with over 2,200 open issues. At the end of Oct 2022, Nova Labs announced it will no longer handle the github issues; requests for additions and removals will now be handled as 'submissions' via Crowdspot.io.
Early Nov 2022, there are over 118,000 hotspots on the denylist, which is over 12% of all Helium hotspots.
The Helium/Nova Labs team was processing the github Addition/Removal issues in batches, releasing new denylists every week or so. Since 27 Oct 2022 the submissions are at Crowdspot.io. It remains to be seen if the community will use this platform, and how Nova Labs will keep up with submissions. On 3 Nov 2022, 5 out of 197 submissions have been 'accepted', and are waiting to be merged.
This script tracks the changes to the denylist by cloning the github repository, and loading the different versions of the denylist to compare with the previous version.
- Previous: hotspots already included in the previous denylist
- Additions: hotspots newly added (relative to the previous denylist)
- Removals: hotspots removed from the previous denylist (so few that the don't show up yet on the bar graph)
Status on 3 Nov 2022 (as in above bar graph)
| hash | date | size | new | old | removed | name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b52ad8e | 2022-01-20 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | initial README |
| 8ec9385 | 2022-01-24 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Initial Instructions for maintainers/signers (#3) |
| 69b8e1c | 2022-01-28 | 25,047 | 25,047 | 0 | 1 | 2022012601 (#21) |
| 0b2b24e | 2022-02-02 | 26,272 | 1,256 | 25,016 | 31 | 2022020201 (#170) |
| 78e34c2 | 2022-02-05 | 26,273 | 1 | 26,272 | 0 | 2022020501 (#339) |
| 18a64b8 | 2022-02-08 | 29,629 | 3,377 | 26,252 | 21 | Updates to the denylist (#409) |
| 5545cb2 | 2022-02-12 | 40,484 | 10,855 | 29,629 | 0 | 2022021201 (#684) |
| d15fae0 | 2022-02-22 | 41,544 | 1,060 | 40,484 | 0 | 20220222 (#1474) |
| a8ab883 | 2022-03-09 | 3,236 | 0 | 3,236 | 38,308 | 20220309 (#2225) |
| c1f6e35 | 2022-03-12 | 3,283 | 47 | 3,236 | 0 | 2022031101 (#2323) |
| cf2d9d8 | 2022-03-13 | 3,295 | 12 | 3,283 | 0 | 2022031201 (#2340) |
| a9317f8 | 2022-03-16 | 3,559 | 264 | 3,295 | 0 | 2022031601 (#2433) |
| 02b5f37 | 2022-03-16 | 3,539 | 0 | 3,539 | 20 | 2022031501 (#2432) |
| 5f4051f | 2022-03-17 | 4,345 | 806 | 3,539 | 0 | 2022031801 (#2471) |
| bf17ce7 | 2022-03-22 | 4,606 | 262 | 4,344 | 1 | 2022032001 (#2606) |
| 8221d74 | 2022-03-23 | 4986 | 380 | 4,606 | 0 | 2022032201 (#2659) |
| c618e37 | 2022-03-25 | 5719 | 733 | 4986 | 0 | 2022032501 (#2734) |
| 377d93f | 2022-03-29 | 6244 | 525 | 5719 | 0 | 2022032801 (#2783) |
| 93eebba | 2022-03-31 | 7548 | 1304 | 6244 | 0 | 2022033001 (#2845) |
| 97765c2 | 2022-04-02 | 19010 | 11464 | 7546 | 2 | 2022040101 (#2896) |
| 7c5d8a7 | 2022-04-06 | 19012 | 2 | 19010 | 0 | 2022040501 (#3082) |
| 95a6e1e | 2022-04-11 | 19015 | 3 | 19012 | 0 | 2022041101 (#3464) |
| 6f3240c | 2022-04-15 | 19155 | 140 | 19015 | 0 | 2022041501 (#3629) |
| 6517634 | 2022-04-18 | 20898 | 1743 | 19155 | 0 | 2022041801 (#3847) |
| 84e0f9a | 2022-04-20 | 23969 | 3072 | 20897 | 1 | 2022041901 (#4048) |
| 73ed6f6 | 2022-04-22 | 24324 | 367 | 23957 | 12 | 2022042201 (#4175) |
| 5b84dc0 | 2022-04-27 | 24315 | 0 | 24315 | 9 | 2022042301 (#4238) |
| 4d7e05c | 2022-05-05 | 24613 | 334 | 24279 | 36 | 2022050501 (#4381) |
| fb77695 | 2022-05-07 | 24925 | 312 | 24613 | 0 | 2022050701 (#4734) |
| ded92a3 | 2022-05-11 | 25768 | 844 | 24924 | 1 | 2022050802 (#4814) |
| 42ce863 | 2022-05-12 | 25751 | 0 | 25751 | 17 | 2022051101 (#4936) |
| aca3075 | 2022-05-24 | 27042 | 1292 | 25750 | 1 | 2022051701 (#5071) |
| 65d3f91 | 2022-05-25 | 31029 | 3997 | 27032 | 10 | 2022052502 (#5329) |
| 18d37f9 | 2022-06-09 | 32140 | 1123 | 31017 | 12 | 2022060701 (#5411) |
| 487b9e0 | 2022-06-17 | 32722 | 577 | 32145 | -5 | 2022061701 (#5937) |
| 992ff26 | 2022-06-24 | 35452 | 2749 | 32703 | 19 | 2022062301 (#5982) |
| a8c487d | 2022-06-25 | 36869 | 1447 | 35422 | 30 | 2022062401 (#6020) |
| ca60361 | 2022-06-28 | 40453 | 3602 | 36851 | 18 | 2022062702 (#6105) |
| 83e1049 | 2022-07-08 | 46721 | 6274 | 40447 | 6 | 2022070701 (#6369) |
| 49c7331 | 2022-07-12 | 53326 | 6612 | 46714 | 7 | 2022071002 (#6532) |
| 24ee479 | 2022-07-18 | 54985 | 1709 | 53276 | 50 | 2022071501 (#6629) |
| c3c4df4 | 2022-07-26 | 56109 | 1124 | 54985 | 0 | 2022072002 (#6902) |
| 43b00f2 | 2022-07-29 | 58068 | 1959 | 56109 | 0 | 2022072601 (#7030) |
| ea29736 | 2022-08-15 | 61633 | 3565 | 58068 | 0 | 2022081501 (#7251) |
| 9c6b063 | 2022-08-15 | 58841 | 0 | 58841 | 2792 | 2022072902 (#7082) |
| b8fbd89 | 2022-08-18 | 64496 | 5670 | 58826 | 15 | 2022081601 (#7254) |
| f21eb18 | 2022-08-23 | 67802 | 3306 | 64496 | 0 | 2022081802 (#7285) |
| 3b9fdb2 | 2022-08-25 | 69520 | 1718 | 67802 | 0 | 2022082301 (#7345) |
| da8b7be | 2022-08-28 | 72358 | 2838 | 69520 | 0 | 2022082501 (#7383) |
| 5b8ea24 | 2022-08-31 | 73936 | 1580 | 72356 | 2 | 2022082801 (#7422) |
| e3785d5 | 2022-09-08 | 76484 | 2548 | 73936 | 0 | 2022090101 (#7534) |
| 464fe37 | 2022-09-13 | 79645 | 3162 | 76483 | 1 | 2022090802 (#7606) |
| f85ae7c | 2022-09-19 | 82416 | 2771 | 79645 | 0 | 2022091301 (#7650) |
| 75d57af | 2022-09-24 | 87204 | 4789 | 82415 | 1 | 2022092001 (#7705) |
| b8050ce | 2022-09-29 | 88628 | 1498 | 87130 | 74 | 2022092501 (#7799) |
| c31fc6a | 2022-10-03 | 95273 | 6645 | 88628 | 0 | 2022092901 (#7857) |
| 77c9b3c | 2022-10-06 | 98717 | 3444 | 95273 | 0 | 2022100301 (#7919) |
| a2732cf | 2022-10-10 | 105707 | 7047 | 98660 | 57 | 2022100701 (#7946) |
| ad2e0af | 2022-10-12 | 106838 | 1131 | 105707 | 0 | 2022101001 (#8022) |
| 65efc13 | 2022-10-14 | 108261 | 1423 | 106838 | 0 | 2022101301 (#8045) |
| afd8e39 | 2022-10-18 | 109268 | 1010 | 108258 | 3 | 2022101401 (#8087) |
| 729e271 | 2022-10-20 | 111639 | 2372 | 109267 | 1 | 2022101801 (#8143) |
| 69a1ec9 | 2022-10-24 | 113791 | 2154 | 111637 | 2 | 2022102001 (#8169) |
| 894f0ae | 2022-10-26 | 116747 | 2964 | 113783 | 8 | 2022102401 (#8196) |
| 3cee0dc | 2022-10-28 | 117812 | 1096 | 116716 | 31 | 2022102601 (#8217) |
| 6eef7f2 | 2022-10-31 | 118818 | 1012 | 117806 | 6 | 2022102801 (#8254) |
Crowdspot.io has an interesting list with top locations on the denylist.
To use this script, you will have to clone the Helium denylist repo, and point the GIT_DIR variable in the script to your denylist folder.
The script starts with git pull to update your local denylist repo. Then it looks for the different commits of denylist.csv and loads them in a list to compare each denylist with the previous one.
Note that this does NOT access the Helium blockchain API; the denylist is only used in the Proof-of-Coverage system running on hotspots, at the discretion of hotspot manufacturers.
It is very well possible that mistakes were made in the script and in the above interpretation, I am open to corrections and suggestions.
I got interested in Helium when I saw dozens of hotspots appearing in my area, all of them fake until a real one appeared in March 2022. I had been trying to get the fake ones on the denylist, with little success. As a prospective network user, I am interested in real world coverage, and I am very disappointed that cleaning up the fakes is not a higher priority. It would not surprise me if more than half of all hotspots are spoofing their location; the people who are in a position to know this have an obvious interest in pretending all is well and the network is growing.
I am trying to contribute to mapping of real Helium network coverage in Hong Kong, and I remain a big fan of The Things Network.
I am also trying to analyse how much real data is sent over the Helium network, and as far as I can see only around 20% of the hotspots are seeing real data traffic.