[ZDNet] City of San Jose to provide a year of free internet access to low-income residents, through mining Helium CC.

[VirtualLarry]

San José will provide free internet to low-income families as part of cryptocurrency mining scheme

Helium hotspots will be placed in the homes of families and will mine the HNT cryptocurrency, which will then be used to cover the cost of one year of free internet.

www.zdnet.com

This is really interesting to me. A real-world application of crypto mining. Can a true "crypto UBI" be far behind?

 

[pete6032]

ZDNet pressed city officials about the discrepancy between the potential amount and price of mined HNT versus the one-time $120 cards given out to those mining the cryptocurrency but did not get concrete answers to those questions. The city would not say what happens if the amount of cryptocurrency mined exceeds the cost of providing $120 to about 1,300 households.
The city would only say that the pilot "will disburse funding as the funds become available." The $120 was calculated because low-cost broadband internet in the area runs for about $10 per month locally.

So basically they don't know if it will cover the costs and they don't have a plan if it doesn't.

If these Internet plans only cost $10 per month the City should just pay for it out of their general fund. That's only $156k.