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Comment by mikeyouse | Hacker News Reader

Ha - for all of you "why blame crypto" commenters - this dude looks like the prime suspect based on "helium miner remote Utah" Google searches:

https://gristleking.com/helium-deployed-the-network-in-actio...

His setup looks remarkably similar to what the rangers took down and he's got several videos placing Helium miners or whatever they use on remote peaks in Utah.

I suspect the "authorities say it may be related to Crypto" line was just an expert couching their highly confident assessment as a CYA, but it seems to be obviously crypto.

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The actual application appears to be tracking paragliders. Helium just provides the internet hotspot:

> Over the course of a week, supported by Tommy and Ryan at Lonestar Tracking, Matthew at Digital Matter, Travis at Helium, and Jeremy C (@jerm on Discord), I deployed 2 off-grid Helium Hotspots high in the mountains of Utah (one at over 8,000′ and one above 11,000′) to track 30+ paragliders as they flew during the annual Red Rocks Fly In as well as raced during the inaugural X Red Rocks Hike & Fly race.

This explains why somebody would want a hotspot in such a remote, high location.

The race itself is kind of wild:

https://xredrocks.com/

From the Rules page:

> The task is to reach the control and turn-points defined by the Race Committee every day for three days as quickly as possible traveling only by paraglider or on foot.

I imagine you'd want good tracking data to get an idea of where you're going.

That seems plausible for that one specific setup - but it's obvious that all of these weird crypto grifters were trying to make money by deploying in remote spots with long range connections to capture the rewards.. there aren't very many paraglider canyons and there are far more of these in the foothills.

He liked a tweet about this story too

https://twitter.com/DAnconia_Crypto/status/16110365997013688...

https://twitter.com/thegristleking/likes

Good find.

Ohmygosh... Good find! His images look very similar to those in the news report!

No -- in the news report the antennas were different, the solar panel was much larger, the unit was much more permanently attached to the mountain, and there were guylines supporting the unit from severe weather.

Those are from something much different.

They really aren't though - that dude installed several of his own and consulted on others and the design shifted over time. From his blog;

https://gristleking.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/big-anten...

https://gristleking.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Gristle-K...

It’s a cool project and I love the DIY aspect of something so technical, but don’t love the dumping it on public lands aspect.

Do an image search on "helium crypto solar power" and you will see many other versions that look much more like the one in the video.

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