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“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility.”

— Thomas Edison

The first idea that put Helium co-founders Amir Haleem and Shawn Fanning (of Napster fame) on the long road to building a decentralized, crypto-powered mobile network had nothing to do with decentralization, crypto or mobile networks.

Instead, they were looking for a way to keep track of the very expensive drones they kept losing over windy San Francisco.

It’s not surprising that it turned into something else — the tech industry has a rich history of unintended consequences…

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