Deeper Network’s Official Announcement RE: Helium’s MOC hearing decision

It is with regret to inform the Deeper Network community that Deeper Network’s Helium maker key has been indefinitely suspended by Helium’s Manufacturer Oversight Committee (MOC). Although we don’t agree with the decision, we are glad to have had the opportunity to share our side of the story at the hearing held by the MOC.

The initial idea of becoming a 3rd party manufacturer for Helium was to demonstrate that Deeper Network technology has hardware expansion capabilities. The Deeper Network and Helium cooperation made sense as both companies were aligned in the goal of expanding Web3 ecosystems.

During the early phases of the HNT miner development, an early agreement was struck with an international distributor where the first batch of products were to be shipped. Unfortunately, this distributor sold the HNT miners to mining farms who then spoofed the devices using 3rd party software, in an act of “gaming” the Helium network.

Once the spoofing was discovered, the distributor was contacted by the Deeper Network. When the spoofing infractions weren’t corrected, the Deeper Network terminated the agreement with the distributor immediately. A hearing was held by the MOC on April 7, 2022 and shortly after, a decision was made to suspend the Deeper Network’s onboarding key for a minimum of one year.

The Deeper Network is against gaming and was never involved in the spoofing. However, the Deeper Network and its community were punished for the actions of a distributor and their customers. We feel the decision is unfair to existing customers.

We are still discussing with the MOC regarding the possibility of onboarding those who’ve already purchased the HNT miner. The MOC’s decision to suddenly suspend the maker key has affected thousands of users who purchased the Deeper Network HNT miners.

It is of the utmost importance for Deeper Network to take care of its customers. We will send a request to the MOC to allow the onboarding of the thousands of customers who had already placed the orders from our official site (shop.deeper.network) and have been waiting to join the Helium Network. Meanwhile, the HNT miners are ready to ship but put on hold. We will make another announcement once we receive a response from the MOC regarding the request for the onboarding of these users.

Moving forward, in an effort to protect the Deeper Network and its community, we’re strengthening our vetting process of all existing and future distributors of our products.

Although there are no winners in this decision, the Deeper Network will continue to push forward in furthering the development of Web3. With an entire Web3 ecosystem coming to the network and new hardware already in development to support the ecosystem, there is no doubt the Deeper Network and its community will emerge from this, stronger and more versatile than before. We would like to thank the Deepernaut community for their continued support and efforts in building a more secure, more private and fairer internet for the world!