Application to become an approved third party manufacturer as per HIP19. All questions must be answered, any missing information will result in delays.
Bullion Miner Limited are a UK based tech start-up company launched in early 2022. Although the business is new, our team members have over 50 years of combined experience and knowledge in research and manufacturing within the semiconductor industry. Our aim is to offer consumers the most reliable and highest performing devices on the market at competitive pricing.
- What is your company name? Bullion Miner Limited
- How long has the company been in business? The business was founded in January 2022.
- What kind of products have you created? (list specific products) Full Hotspot Device
- How many have you sold? Zero, until after full authorization is granted
- What brought you to Helium? We are impressed by the potential of the Helium Network and regard this innovative approach as hugely positive for the future of crypto mining and IoT Networks.
- What is this product's model name? The Bullion Miner
- Is this is Light Hotspot or Full Hotspot? (please submit two separate applications for Full and Light hotspots) Full Hotspot
- Is this model for indoor, outdoor, or both? (If there are two models, list them separately) Indoor
- Provide a brief description of the product: The Bullion Miner boasts an impressive, market leading hardware configuration design with 64GB of memory for lightning fast operation, an 8GB RAM Raspberry Pi 4B board with an ECC608 security chip & the SX1302 RF Module with built in Bluetooth & Wi-fi making our Helium HNT crypto mining device the most powerful, highest specification $HNT crypto mining device found anywhere on the planet. With this much power and space inside, The Bullion Miner offers excellent future proofing and sustainable reliability against the Helium blockchain's long-term growth potential.
- What is your approximate price point? ~£600 (in line with another UK based established brand)
- What is your expected production and delivery timeline? Hardware Prototype: 20/02/2022 Software Development: 01/04/2022 Radio Frequency Certification: 01/04/2022 Helium Audit Pass (expected): 01/05/2022 First Batch Product Delivery: 01/06/2022
Startups welcomed!
- Have you shipped anything in the past? What types of products have you shipped? As a new start-up company, Bullion Miner Limited have not shipped products before. But our team involved in other business ventures have many years of experience in shipping various products with our logistics partners.
- Which countries have you previously shipped regulatory FCC or CE approved products? EMEA and North America
North America, Europe and Australia at first, but we plan to sell globally once we aquire the region/country specific RF certifications.
- How will your customers be able to contact you for support for your products? We have a dedicated support email address, and will be staffing social media channels. Customers will be able to contact us for support for the life of the product, no limits.
- For how long? Permanently
- How are you planning to handle repairs and replacements? Our OEM manufacturing plant will handle the repairs within warranty, and we can offer one year of standard warranty.
- The community is concerned about devices that can be easily hacked, specifically by copying their swarm_key files. Applications should include plan for how the devices will be secured. The approved security element is an ECC608. If you would like to use an alternative security element your HIP19 will require additional review, please email Dewi ([email protected]).
- Are you using an ECC608. Yes or No? Yes
- Encrypted/locked-down firmware. Yes or No? Yes
- Encrypted storage of the miner swarm_key, either via disk encryption or hardware measures. Yes or No? Yes, we will encrypt storage of miner swarm_key through ECC608A
- Encrypted buses, potting and other anti-tampering measures. Yes or No? No
- Willingness to submit a prototype for audit, and sharing those audit results publicly (pass or fail) Yes or No? Yes
Hardware Information (required). Please provide detailed hardware designs, including relevant parts.
Evidence of a functioning prototype - photos/videos. Renderings are OK but physical prototypes are much, much better.
- Raspberry Pi 4B (2G or above)
- Broadcom BCM2711, Quad core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.5GHz
- dual-band 802.11ac\n wireless 2.4GHz/5GHz
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Bluetooth 5.0
- Lora SX1302 LoRaWAN / SX1250
- ECC608 Security
- Antenna 4dbi Enhanced to include 2dbi
- What are your plans for software setup and configuration for the devices? This would includes remote updates and the ability for hosts to change wifi settings, via Helium's official app or otherwise. Mobile/PC to connect miner through bluetooth with app to update wifi setting and remote updates
- Which security implementation (ECC608, TPM, TrustZone, other) are you using? ECC608
- Which LoRa chipset are you planning to use in your gateway? SX1302 We recommend you don't use the SX1301 in new designs.
- What is the CPU? Broadcom BCM2711, Quad core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.5GHz
- Other Hardware Specifications: SX1302 LoRA HAT x1 (SPI&I2C, 8 channels) 16GB SD card x1
- Have you built and delivered radio hardware products before? Bullion Miner Limited have not yet as we are a new start-up company.
- Have you built gateways before? Our team have extensive experience with which to handle development and production of the product.
- How many gateways did you make? None at present.
- If you have not built gateways before, are you using a third party manufacturer? This is the single largest risk with most hardware ventures. If possible please provide information about your manufacturing partners and supply chain. We have design ownership of the product and hold the manufacturing licence but we outsource the manufacturing to a 3rd party supplier with a great deal of experience, capability and capacity. Our core components are to be supplied by EdaTec, who are a highly experienced LoraWAN gateway Helium hotspot manufacturer for multiple existing brands offering us excellent support, and with access to ongoing high volume supplies. We will also be utilising Melent, in order to build the devices, who's team are also extremely experienced with radio and electronic component design and manufacture.
- Where are you sourcing your components from? Avnet, RS-online and other authorized suppliers.
- How many radio modules/ concentrators can you procure? We have full confidence in our main supplier, with many tens of thousands in stock with a maximum two week lead time to our factory. Capacity will be thousands of units per month. We have back up suppliers also.
Per typical KYC/AML procedures, proof of identity for major shareholders (25%+ ownership) will be expected to be provided privately to representatives from Helium Inc or DeWi board members. This will be attested and publicly confirmed by those representatives. Contact details for this will be provided after your application is submitted on GitHub.
- How many hotspots are you planning to manufacture and sell within the first six months of sales? 600 (We plan for 100 per month for the first 6 months, dependent on supply and demand plan to increase accordingly)
- How much money will be required up-front? How much money do you have on-hand, and how much do you have access to? The business has access to sufficient and ongoing funds to ensure development and manufacturing throughout 2022.
- What is your plan for additional financing if required? (This is the second biggest risk in new hardware ventures, getting almost over the line and then running out of cash.) The business owners have other lucrative business ventures which guarantee ongoing access to funds along with contingency to release funds from elsewhere.
Please tell us about some of the challenges that would prevent these products from becoming a reality and how you might address them. Whilst the global chip shortage presents a challenge, we do however have a very good relationship with the supply chains in China and short lead times ensuring the amount ordered.
- Contact Email (required) - [email protected]
- Website (required) - www.bullionminers.com (Website under construction)
- Twitter profile - https://twitter.com/BullionMiners
- Facebook profile - https://fb.me/BullionMiners
- Discord - Bullion#4507
- Other social profiles - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAlDsJUp95otQbRKo4G3DRA
Debit & Credit Card payments via Stripe, crypto USDT/C payment option also to be made available.