Denylist Beta
What is the Denylist?
The denylist is a list of IoT Hotspot public keys and a cryptographic signature that have been identified not to be accurately contributing to network coverage or are otherwise circumventing the good faith of the network in an attempt to earn rewards. Rewards gaming by dishonest actors, even as a small percentage of the network, erodes network integrity.
Examples include, but are not limited to: cluster packet forwarders, misasserted locations, misasserted antennas, multiple or shared antennas, attenuators, amplifiers, and Data Credit farming.
The denylist is another tool in a broader range of tools to incentivize Hotspots on the network to provide the most honest and accurate wireless coverage possible.
The denylist is sourced from the community to keep the network decentralized. Credible decentralization ensures that no one entity can control the network. Any coordinated effort to game rewards, block data transfer, or censor information to benefit one party while harming another, undermines the mission of creating global, open wireless networks.
The Helium Foundation has not and will never run a denylist out of the interest of decentralization.
Network Impact
Hotspot Owners: For any well-asserted, appropriately compensated Hotspot, the denylist only benefits you. By denying token distribution to dishonest Hotspots, those tokens are shared amongst honest Hotspots.
Bad Actors: If your Hotspots are earning tokens without providing coverage, they are likely to appear on the Denylist and will stop earning token Rewards.
Denylist Generation
The current iteration of the denylist classifier is a step toward the long-term evolution of Proof-of-Coverage to dynamically evaluate network coverage. The process is fully detailed in the write-up from the authors of the classifier, IoT Denylist Evolution.
Frequently Asked Questions
My Hotspot appears on the denylist. What can I do?
The most important step to take when evaluating whether a Hotspot should be on the denylist is to double-check the asserted location of the Hotspot. Hotspots that are physically placed apart from their asserted location are likely to be included. Reasserting a Hotspot can be accomplished in the Helium Wallet App.
If the Hotspot is operating honestly on the network, with well-attached antennas, a clear view, and appropriately asserted attributes, further analysis of the Hotspot can take place in the official Helium Community Discord channel, #denylist.
Setting the antenna gain (dBi) if the Hotspot to a value lower than its actual value can cause the Hotspot to transmit at higher powers than allowed by local law. These Hotspots would also be included on the Denylist.
I've made changes to my Hotspot, how long before I'm removed from the denylist?
Removal is not immediate. It may take 2-3 weeks if Hotspot parameters are updated to be accurate and no other misuse classifiers are triggered. Your Hotspot may participate in Proof-of-Coverage but will not earn tokens until the new data is validated by other non-denied Hotspots performing PoC activities. Denylist updates are posted on GitHub in the Denylist repository.
What if the denylist doesn't include all of the gaming Hotspots?
The denylist is one disincentive of many to keep gaming at bay. Above all, Proof-of-Coverage and more direct detection methods all work in concert to ensure the security of PoC.
Will the Denylist have the ability to block data transfer and/or rewards for data transfer?
Hotspots on the denylist are "denied" of Proof-of-Coverage rewards, but are still able to act as a data-only Hotspot, providing data transfer network coverage where possible. It is important to understand the uninterrupted data transfer ability in the case of errant denylist inclusions.