Akash Network is adding support for the Helium Network, the largest peer-to-peer wireless internet-of-things (IoT) network, to provide a decentralized, open-source, and low-cost cloud alternative for Helium's new blockchain validators, estimated to launch June 2021.

With containerization technology and a unique staking model to accelerate adoption, Akash leverages 85% of underutilized global cloud capacity in 8.4 million data centers and servers, enabling developers to set their price for cloud computing. Akash provides a fast, more efficient, and low-cost deployment and hosting solution for the Helium validator software.

"Helium validators running on Akash will have unique advantages such as setting their cost for deployment, scaling up quickly to multiple nodes without building their own Kubernetes cluster, settling payments using cryptocurrency, and switching cloud providers and regions instantly," said Greg Osuri, CEO of Akash Network. "The blockchain validator community values decentralization and Akash's permissionless decentralized cloud meet that key requirement."

Validators will play an integral role in the expansion, stability, and success of the Helium network, acting as the consensus group, and performing functions that include verifying transactions and adding new blocks to the blockchain.

Operating a validator will require hosting the software on a secure and reliable infrastructure. The return on investment for operating a validator is linked to the cost of server hosting and the amount of Helium tokens (HNT) staked. As a secure, decentralized cloud marketplace offering 2-3 times lower cost compute than centralized cloud providers, Akash is positioned to onboard and support thousands of potential new validators on the Helium blockchain.

"Migrating the Helium blockchain's consensus group from hosted hotspots to validators is a major upgrade for scalability and performance," said Scott Sigel, Director of Operations at the Decentralized Wireless Alliance, the nonprofit foundation arm of the Helium Network. "From the Foundation's perspective, we want to see Helium validators optimize for diversity of infrastructure and decentralization, which is why we're thrilled to have Akash in the Helium ecosystem. Not only is their performance and cost structure attractive to node operators, but their decentralized cloud aligns with our own ethos of creating permissionless and open systems."