HIP 86: Increase IOT Data Transfer Cost

[hiptron]

HIP 86: Increase IOT Data Transfer Cost

• Author(s): @KeithRettig
• Start Date: 2023-05-28
• Category: Economic
• Original HIP PR: #698
• Tracking Issue: #703
• Voting Requirements: veIOT Holders

Summary

This HIP proposes to change the per packet cost of transferring messages on the Helium IOT Network from 1 data credit (DC) per 24-byte packet to 2 data credits (DC) per 24-byte packet to better align the price with its value to our customers.

Motivation

The primary motivation is to align the cost of packet transfer closer to the true value of packet transfer within the IOT subDAO. While it is believed by the author that the true value of packet transfer is closer to 100 DC, it would be economically unfeasible to implement a 100-fold increase in the price in one action.

Rendered View:

https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/main/0086-increase-iot-data-transfer-cost.md

[disk91]

Different ideas about this hip:

It's important to not mix the Packet cost paid to the network (1DC) and the Packet cost for a device owner. Between the two there is the cost of service. The difference goes to the service provider or to your own infrastructure you need to support and to your time.

So this hip should not address the cost question in regard of the customer cost but in regard of the hotspot owner retribution for the service. Because 1 DC per 24B packet is related to the hotspot owner retribution and NOT to the device owner cost.

In my point of view, in term of cost modification, there is some more important point to consider, like getting Downlink billable and making Join request free to make the Join process more reliable.

The impact of this HIP concern all the already made business model having taken into consideration the 1 DC / 24B model. The impact is the trust about the stability of price for Helium in a long term point of view, we need to be careful with this as doubling the network cost is not unsignificant.

Another if we go to double the network retribution, I propose that only the first replicate would be impacted by this and not the duplicates to make device localization more accessible.

Last point, in the HIP, once you addressed it in the direction of the network retribution, you need to identify the cost impact for the end-user and don't forget that this cost is not a single DC per byte as many application requires multi-buy. multi-buy can cost 2 to 10 DCs (or more) per packets.

[waveform06]

This hip has been closed after concluding that regional pricing is needed before any considerations of charging more are considered.