Dear Friends,
I made some progress in understanding the Helium Network and its recent evolution.
At present, Helium Full hotspot need to synchronize the blockchain and this can take 2 or 3 days. Also this is very resource consuming and cannot work on the long term as the blockchain would be huge. So the Helium community decided to move to a new system where the blockchain would be managed on a separate server, i.e. your own NAS with Docker or vendors themselves. This is what gateway-rs is all about. I am trying t install it on my NAS with Docker and will keep you informed.
https://github.com/helium/gateway-rs
Gateways running gateway-rs provided by vendors are called "Light hotspots". They are able to get rewards for proof of coverage. They are the future of Helium gateways. Full hotspots will soon stop working as they are a no-go solution.
Third-party hotspots like the wAP LR8/LR9 connecting to Gateway-rs are called "data-only gateways". They only receive rewards from data transfers. No proof of wireless coverage.
The good news are that apparently the Mikrotik wAP LR8/LR9 can be used on the Helium network without modification. If Mikrotik decides to provide gateway-rs and follow the certification process the wAP can become a light gateway. If Mikrotik does nothing to join the Helium community, we can use gateway-rs on a NAS or a Raspbery Pie or on the Cloud and make it as a data-only gateway.
Helium vendors provide Raspberry Pies and the like. The wAP LR is superior as it consumes less power and is cooler (important under the sun in an outdoor environment). So the market is FULLY OPEN to Mikrotik if interested in selling 500.000 units.
I hope I don't get it wrong, please correct me if needed.