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Whether that's "socially useful" is questionable or, more precisely, highly uncertain.
Helium business model seems to be to run an alternative to the public network of LoRaWAN gateways, using the same protocol, just running a private network.
Get paid by IoT operators, pay out to gateway owners and keep 30%.
That's no different from any other franchise, just with fancy #blockchain architecture added. Is it going to work? No idea.