HeliumGeek HeliumGeek

Event Notes - July 7, 2026

Town Hall: Advisory Council Next Steps

A Discord town hall after HIP 149 passed, focused on council nominations, voting, implementation status, network updates, tiering, and community questions.

SourceDiscord town hall recording
Duration49m 06s
ParticipantsHelium team and community

Executive Summary

  • HIP 149 had passed, and the call moved from persuasion to implementation: Mario Di Dio described the vote as a first step, with the main focus now on forming the advisory council, seating it, and starting the diligence period that comes before supplement disbursement.
  • The advisory council channel is live: Speakers said a public Discord channel would let candidates declare themselves, post a concise bio and Helium history, and explain why they should be selected. The channel opened after the call with links to the Confidentiality and Participation Agreement and Council Roles, Responsibilities, and Access. Helium Tools now tracks nomination posts and endorsements from the channel. Nominations close Sunday, July 12, 2026 at 23:59 UTC.
  • Nova described a post-vote eligibility process before seating: After voting, Nova Labs would run identity verification and applicable background checks because elected council members must sign a Council Participation Agreement and NDA. If a candidate is rejected, Nova said it would provide a high-level explanation and move to the next candidate in the vote ranking.
  • The first council meeting was targeted for July 20: Once the council is vetted and agreements are signed, the first sitting would start the HIP 149 diligence window. The call framed that as the point where the council reviews documentation with Nova before the mint and operational collaboration move forward.
  • PoC retirement had already reached users: Marc Nijdam said oracles were deployed July 6 for both IoT and Mobile, and PoC rewards were no longer in effect. IoT PoC value now flows to the IoT operations fund, while the remaining on-chain contract work, including the floor-related implementation, was in security review.
  • The call also became a network update: Speakers discussed Brazil and Mambo WiFi, Mexico offload, Movistar expansion-zone campaigns, three additional Mexico carrier discussions, a planned enablement-platform launch, 1,500 more U.S. carrier target locations, venue tiering, and the long-term question of whether the 141M HNT supplement remains finite.

What Happened

The town hall opened with the acknowledgement that HIP 149 had passed. Mario framed the vote as the first step in a longer implementation process, then moved directly into how the advisory council should be nominated, elected, vetted, and seated.

Council Nomination and Voting Timeline

Speakers said nominations would open on July 7 in a public Discord channel. The channel is now live as #advisory-council. Its opening message says candidates can self-nominate or be nominated by another community member, and asks candidates to declare candidacy with a bio covering their Helium contributions, relevant background, and why they would be an effective council member, preferably under 2,000 characters.

The same message links candidates to the Confidentiality and Participation Agreement and the Council Roles, Responsibilities, and Access document. It also states that nominations close Sunday, July 12, 2026 at 23:59 UTC.

Helium Tools now provides a nomination tracker for the channel. It lists candidate posts, Discord message links, and endorsements with a timestamp for the last successful poll, so it is useful for following the live process but should not be treated as a final candidate list before nominations close.

The intent described during the call was to keep nominations open enough for candidates to build community support rather than adding heavy gating before the vote.

The candidate vote was targeted to start Monday, July 13, 2026 and run for five days. Marc Nijdam described the process as similar to the Mobile Working Group election: nominations are collected, voters rank or select candidates through an existing governance flow, and the result becomes a stack-ranked list used to fill seats.

After voting, Nova Labs would verify elected candidates through identity checks and applicable background checks because the role requires signing a Council Participation Agreement and NDA. If a candidate cannot proceed, Nova said it would give a high-level explanation and move to the next candidate in the ranking.

The target date for the first council sitting was July 20, 2026. The call connected that first meeting to the two-week diligence period described in HIP 149, where the council reviews documentation and works with Nova before the supplement process advances.

Council Mandate and Access

The opening channel message and the roles document describe the council as an oversight body for the HIP 149 supplemental mint. Its mandate is to oversee supplement allocation and use, monitor progress toward Nova or the receiving entity becoming cash-flow neutral within the three-year mint period, and track whether Helium Network expansion is producing increased HNT burn in a financially sustainable way.

The roles document limits council authority to matters materially related to the supplement: use, allocation, monetization, DC burn alignment, market impact, and progress toward the stated goals. It also makes clear that the council is not a board of directors or executive team and does not manage Nova's day-to-day business.

The documents also clarify the kind of information the council can expect: category-level financials, supplement outflow reports, aggregated headcount, ecosystem grant summaries, carrier expansion and revenue reports, and ongoing supplement sales reporting. They also list boundaries around protected information, direct ledger access, tax filings, compensation data, capitalization-table information, and board or investor materials.

Council HNT, Tax, and MNPI Questions

A community question asked whether council members could sell council HNT to Nova, especially if they need to handle tax liabilities. Mario said Nova does not want to create a permanent standing buyer facility for council HNT because that would complicate the legal and governance posture. He did say Nova could consider ad hoc OTC sales in specific cases, including tax-related situations.

Mario also addressed material non-public information and trading risk. He said the agreement language was written similarly to how companies usually handle roles with access to sensitive information, especially in the current crypto regulatory environment.

PoC Retirement and Floor Implementation Status

Marc Nijdam said the implementation work had moved forward quickly: oracles were deployed July 6 for both IoT and Mobile, and PoC rewards were no longer in effect for either network. On the IoT side, he said the retired PoC value now goes into the IoT operations fund to help pay for regional routers, oracles, and part of an engineering role to keep the system running.

For the remaining on-chain work, Marc Nijdam said security review was underway and was the longest pole in the process. He said he could not give an exact date, but guessed it could be completed within one to two weeks depending on audit findings and required fixes.

Starlink, Cable Operators, and Wi-Fi Offload

While waiting for more questions, Mario pointed to recent discussion around Starlink and cable operators as another signal that Wi-Fi offload remains important even as satellite companies move toward mobile offerings. He said cable operators such as Charter Spectrum have long used Wi-Fi offload as part of mobile economics, and he argued that satellite-mobile offerings may also arrive with embedded Wi-Fi offload strategies.

Brazil, Mambo, and Mexico Updates

On Brazil and Mambo WiFi, Mario said lab proof-of-concept work continued and that two active commercial negotiations were underway. He said the technical trials were going well, and that one large MNO had previously tried Passpoint around 2018-2019 but was unhappy with quality at the time. The current pitch is framed around quality-first Passpoint and carrier-grade offload.

On Mexico, Mario said Movistar had started a text-based campaign for subscribers around expansion zones and had asked the team for specific data about those zones and future expansion potential. He said Android OEMs with Android 11 and later had received carrier bundle updates, and that AT&T was already using the network in Mexico through a roaming-driven model. He also said three additional Mexico carrier discussions were active, with one technical trial complete and moving into commercial discussions.

Mario also said Helium and Nova were preparing an enablement-platform launch, targeted between the call date and the end of July. He described that platform as important because it is meant to help bring more carriers onto the network.

Target Locations, Tiering, and Pricing

Mario said the same U.S. carrier that previously provided 30,000 target locations had added 1,500 more. The team was loading those into its deployment tooling. He connected that to a broader discussion about tiering: the network needs to grow where carrier demand and dollar value align, but tiering is not only about venue type. It also depends on specific carrier interest and geography.

As one example, Mario said a tier-three venue in an expansion zone can be valued about 30 percent higher than a similar venue outside an expansion zone. He said volume and user counts do affect carrier leverage, but the leverage comes from executing in the geographic places carriers care about and then using that proof in contract renewals.

Marc Nijdam separated three billing relationships: the carrier-to-Nova commercial relationship, the network charge to the payer, and the network-to-deployer reward relationship. He said tiering improvements can help the full funnel if they raise carrier value, aggregate network pricing, and deployer rewards together.

Simplicity Versus Contract Detail

Mario said the council would likely discuss the complexity behind carrier contracts and venue tiering, but the team is balancing transparency against usability. Exposing every contract detail directly to the broader community can make participation harder. On the other hand, oversimplifying can hide important economic mechanics. He described that as one of the balancing acts the council will need to help manage.

He also argued that strategic bets matter. Mexico began with grant-funded deployment work, then became useful footprint for U.S. carriers looking at Mexico. He said U.S. carriers are now looking at the Brazil footprint as well, which is why the team sometimes supports future carrier needs before every detail is backed by current contract demand.

Direct User Payments and Captive Portals

A community member asked whether people not on a partner carrier could pay to use Helium coverage in airports or other large venues. Mario said the idea is interesting, but he was hesitant about captive portals because the Wi-Fi industry is moving away from them and Helium's core value proposition is seamless connectivity.

He said an app-delivered Passpoint profile might be a more plausible delivery mechanism, and mentioned that the team has previously discussed whether the Helium Wallet could support paying for a user's own traffic. He also noted that payment settlement and user experience are more complicated than they first appear.

Supply, Inflation, and Long-Term Trust

A community question asked how to assure long-term investors and stakers that HNT will not become continuously inflated. Mario pushed back on the idea that there is interest in continuous inflation. He said the supplement was designed around a two-to-three-year thesis and that the goal should be for the thesis to work early enough that the full amount does not need to be used.

He also said he could not credibly promise that no future externality would ever require a different funding path. As examples, he mentioned large government grants or other external conditions that could change the timing or structure of the plan. His answer separated the current finite supplement from the impossibility of making an absolute statement about every future scenario.

Mexico Coverage Model

Mario said AT&T's Mexico use case is different from targeted U.S. offload because Mexico and Canada are part of many U.S. data plans. When those subscribers are outside the U.S., the carrier depends on roaming agreements with local carriers. In places where Wi-Fi is cheaper than roaming, Helium can be a broader offload option. He said that, as of the call, a validated unit in Mexico would automatically turn on for AT&T offload.

Closing

The call closed with Scott saying the council channel would open shortly with the participation agreement, roles and responsibilities, access documents, and a nomination template. Mario asked the community to keep bringing constructive ideas, said the team does read Discord even when it does not respond immediately, and said he hopes the council includes a healthy balance of deployer and token-holder experience.

Numbers and Claims to Track

  • Duration of the town hall: 49m 06s.
  • HIP 149 had passed before this call.
  • Council nominations opened through the Helium Discord #advisory-council channel after the call.
  • Nominations close Sunday, July 12, 2026 at 23:59 UTC.
  • Candidate voting was targeted to start Monday, July 13, 2026 and run for five days.
  • The first council sitting was targeted for July 20, 2026.
  • The council diligence period begins after seating and was described as two weeks.
  • PoC rewards were said to be no longer in effect for both Mobile and IoT.
  • Oracles were said to have been deployed July 6, 2026.
  • Security review for the remaining on-chain work was estimated at roughly one to two weeks, depending on findings.
  • IoT PoC value was said to flow to an IoT operations fund supporting regional routers, oracles, and part of an engineering role.
  • Brazil/Mambo work was described as having two active commercial negotiations in addition to ongoing technical trials.
  • Mexico work included Movistar expansion-zone campaigns, Android 11+ carrier bundle updates, AT&T offload, and three additional carrier discussions.
  • A U.S. carrier was said to have added 1,500 more target locations after an earlier 30,000-location request.
  • A tier-three location in an expansion zone was described as roughly 30 percent more valuable than the same venue outside an expansion zone.
  • Mario described the supplement thesis as two to three years, while the broader U.S. macro catalyst was framed as three to five years.

Key Themes

  • The event shifted from debating HIP 149 to operationalizing it after passage.
  • The advisory council is the immediate governance bottleneck because supplement diligence and disbursement wait on seating the council.
  • The public council channel frames the council mandate around supplement use, cash-flow-neutral progress, network expansion, DC burn alignment, market impact, and long-term financial sustainability.
  • Nova wants an open nomination process, but final council seating still depends on identity verification, background checks, and signed agreements.
  • Council members may face real tax and MNPI constraints, and Nova is trying to avoid a standing market facility for council HNT.
  • PoC retirement is already visible to participants, while the floor/top-up mechanism depends on audited on-chain changes.
  • Network growth is being framed around carrier-driven target locations, expansion zones, quality-first Passpoint, and tiering rather than generic hotspot count.
  • The team is trying to balance community transparency with contract complexity, user-friendly governance, and carrier confidentiality.
  • The supply question remains active: the team argues the supplement is finite and goal-driven, while community members want stronger long-term assurances.

Open Questions and Follow-Ups

  • Who nominates for the five community council seats and how concentrated the final vote becomes.
  • Whether any winning candidates fail identity, background, CPA, NDA, or conflict checks.
  • Whether the candidate pool produces the healthy mix of tokenholder and deployer experience requested in the channel announcement.
  • How much of the council's work can be reported publicly while still respecting NDA and carrier-contract limits.
  • When security review for the on-chain implementation completes and when the deployer floor/top-up behavior becomes active.
  • How IoT operations funding is reported over time and whether it is enough to maintain required infrastructure.
  • How venue tiering maps into deployer rewards without making participation too hard to understand.
  • Whether Brazil/Mambo commercial negotiations and Mexico carrier discussions convert into public launch announcements.
  • Whether direct user-paid access through an app or wallet can work without damaging Helium's seamless-connectivity proposition.
  • How the community should interpret future funding needs if external conditions change before the two-to-three-year thesis plays out.

Sources

These notes and the transcript were prepared with AI assistance. Sources are listed for verification.