Well, no ill will to the Helium people - it seems like a somewhat smart idea. I wouldn't call it a "Web3" use-case though - as many have mentioned - they could have done their own payment processing and it wouldn't change the underlying product much (except possibly in the excitement of customers / would-be hotspot hosters).<p>I guess my ill will here is with VC firms. Helium has raised 364.8M. With $6,500 revenue? I've talked to about a dozen folks like me, doing small, on-the-cusp-of-success startups, doing 3 to 5x that revenue with nowhere near the exposure as Helium, who get essentially laughed out of the room when trying to raise 500K.<p>I have a <i>very</i> hard time buying that the founders are ~600x better at fund raising than others, or that the idea even requires that much capital to prove out. Could they have not started with say, one neighborhood in SF, proved the idea, and raised from there?<p>The only conclusion is that the author of this piece is right - it's a scam to dump the hyped coin onto retail investors. If it ever comes out that A16Z did in fact sell at peak and profited massively from this, I cannot help but feel it is existentially damning for the concept of silicon valley. I say that as a lowly but devoted tech acolyte.<p>Well, at any rate, my response of being a bit annoyed at "what's your path to 100B" type questions from VCs will now change to "What makes you a capitalist and not a racketeer?".