Securing the Wingbits network

After over six months of research and discussions with potential customers and industry experts, we will transition away from on boarding build-your-own devices to on boarding Wingbits Approved Devices only.

We have two groups that we have a responsibility towards — first and foremost, our community, which is the backbone of our entire business, and our customers who rely on our data. By making this change, we will protect our community by ensuring fairness and transparency within the project and help our customers by providing the most secure, highest quality data network possible.

Impact on Current Community Members

We recognize the contributions of our amazing community and will ensure this change does not negatively impact you:

• Grandfathering Existing Devices: All existing devices will be allowed to participate on the same terms as future Wingbits devices. This will be limited to the devices that are already live by this announcement as well as any person who has paid for a 30 day hexagon reservation, as long as the station goes live within the reservation period.
• Security Enhancements: All stations online at the time of the announcement will receive a free USB dongle containing cryptographic and GPS chips. This cost will be absorbed by the company as a gesture of appreciation for our community. All build-your-own devices will have to enable this dongle within 90 days of receiving the dongle. If the dongle is not enabled after 90 days, the device will cease to earn rewards.
• Build-your-own Device Limit: We will allow up to 2,000 total build-your-own devices on the network. The first devices between current size (approximately 1550), and 2000 to go live will have the right to purchase the dongle. To continue participating in the network after 2024, these devices must purchase the dongle or your rewards will stop. Once we reach 2,000 devices, onboarding will be locked until approved hardware is available. This hardware is expected to be released in early November.
• Mining Wingbits on 3rd Party: If you mine via a 3rd party like Crankk or BitHarvest, we will work with them with this transition. As long your device can support the dongle, you will be grandfathered in just like any other device.

Reasons for the Transition:

• Avoid Spoofing and Cheating: More secure hardware will protect the project and community from long-term spoofing and cheating. Those would have a negative impact both on the community as well as for our customers. We see data spoofing becoming an increasingly big problem already on the existing networks. Being able to largely remove this will make our network a lot more valuable to the data buyers.
• Commercial Value: Creating a secure hardware network will have immense value to customers, allowing us to dominate the market and feed significant revenue back into the community. By creating a much higher quality network that has not been seen, we will be able to capture a massive market share which will greatly benefit the community in the long-run.
• Technical Support: A more uniform network simplifies support, making life easier for everyone. The plug-and-play device will also make it much easier for less technical people to join.
• Data Quality and Reliability: High-end, homogeneous devices will enhance network quality and reliability, further increasing commercial value. We have validated this from 100% of customers we have spoken to.

Clarifying Details

• We will notify everyone when the portal is open for dongle orders. For those who qualify for a free dongle, you will go through a simple order process where you provide the shipping address for delivery.
• For all the people that already have live stations, you do not have to do anything at the moment. You are automatically qualified for the free dongle. When the portal is ready, you will be notified and have plenty of time to submit your order.
• If you ordered hardware before August 5th, 2024, and it is in transit, please open a ticket in our Discord and provide proof of order details to qualify for a free dongle. The 90-day period to install the dongle starts when it has been received.
• If you join the project after August 5th, you must first set your station live to qualify to purchase a dongle as part of the last 450 build-your-own devices available. If you do not wish to purchase a dongle, we strongly advise against joining the project, as you will not be rewarded beyond 2024 if the dongle is not enabled.
• To enable the dongle in the future, simply plug it into an open USB port. The dongle does not replace your current SDR dongle; it is an addition to your current setup.

As part of this transition, we will have several live sessions for anyone to join our Discord stage and ask questions.