People keep putting up amateur antennas on public lands around Salt Lake City, and authorities there sound both baffled at their purpose and exasperated at having to take them down. As KSL-TV reports, they typically consist of a battery pack, solar panel, and a fiberglass antenna, and they're usually placed at high elevation. "These towers have been bolted into different peaks and summits and ridges around the foothills," says Tyler Fonarow, the city's recreational trails manager. "It started with one or two, and now it might be as much as a dozen."
The devices started appearing about a year ago, and authorities initially thought they might be makeshift cell phone boosters, reports Vice. However, speculation on social media has pointed to a different rationale: cryptocurrency. Specifically, people trying to "mine" a cryptocurrency called Helium. Vice explains: "Helium is a type of cryptocurrency that uses antennas to create a long-range, wide-area network. Instead of proof-of-work releasing token rewards, Helium relies on what it calls proof-of-coverage. The wider the network, the more Helium you’re mining." And the devices look very much like those in Helium how-to guides.
To Fanarow's mind, that's all more the reason to crack down. "It might be related to cryptocurrency and relaying networks and being able to make money off that," he says. "So that’s another reason we want to stop it now before it becomes a dumping ground for dozens and dozens of more antennas.” However, he notes that the crypto theory is just one of many being floated. As Gizmodo puts it, "Honestly, this one has us stumped." (More Utah stories.)
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