Bobber 200

Since the genesis block, the Helium blockchain has run entirely on the physical Hotspot (e.g., Bobcat Miner 300) itself. As the blockchain network grows, each Hotspot running a full node undergoes increasing load and is starting to fall out of sync due to the higher compute requirements. To mitigate this, the Hotspot’s consensus work has been moved off of physical Hotspots and onto Validators. This simplifies the architecture and enables us to grow the Network exponentially while keeping blocktimes and epochs stable.

Light Hotspots do not create challenges as this work has now been moved to Validators. Hotspots are still integral to Proof-of-Coverage and will perform the work of sending and witnessing Beacons, as well as make up the majority of Proof-of-Coverage rewards per epoch. Full hotspots on the Helium blockchain will no longer create PoC challenges after May 3, 2022 when light hotspot is activated on the Mainnet.

Yes, if you are awaiting a Bobcat Miner 300, it will download the Light Hotspot software upgrade automatically when it’s plugged in and connected to the internet.

Yes. Because Light Hotspots no longer need to sync and keep up with a copy of the blockchain, it will consume much less bandwidth than before. By how much is still unknown and will depend on what updates your manufacturer sends to the Hotspot.