Helium Network, a decentralized wireless communication network, has announced that it will migrate to the Solana blockchain on March 27th. The move to Solana was enabled by the community passing HIP-70 on September 22nd, with over 80% voting in favor.
News Sentiment: Positive
Migration Process and Activities During the 24-Hour Halting Period
According to the announcement from its Foundation, the migration will take place over 24 hours. The current Helium blockchain will be halted during that time, and validators will stop producing blocks. Proof-of-Coverage and data transfer activities will remain unaffected.
After all accounts and tokens are migrated to the Solana blockchain, hotspots will be minted as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Holders of HNT and MOBILE tokens will not need to take any action to participate in the upgrade.
Benefits of Migrating to Solana Blockchain
The Helium team believes migrating to Solana will bring numerous benefits, including more of its native token available to subDAO reward pools, improved mining, and more reliable data transfer and ecosystem support. Solana offers speed, scalability, wallet compatibility, and a viable ecosystem to help its progress. The migration will encompass all wallets, hotspots, and Helium Network states.
The Foundation is currently constituting an Upgrade Readiness Working Group, which will consist of volunteers in the community responsible for monitoring the migration process. They will also choose the final date for the migration, as March 27th remains tentative.
The team claims to have all known risks under control but acknowledged that there might be a need for an extension on the timeline for some reasons, such as a need for a software update before the migration or if the smart contract audit recognizes a critical feature that needs to be fixed.
Tokens to be Issued on Solana Network After Migration
After the migration, HNT, MOBILE, and IOT will be issued on the Solana network, which will continue to be the tokens in the Helium ecosystem. Users can access the new application by updating their current wallet app. HNT holders can also use other wallets within the Solana ecosystem, such as Phantom or Solflare.
In conclusion, the migration to Solana is expected to bring numerous benefits to Helium Network, including improved scalability and reliability. The migration will encompass all wallets, hotspots, and Helium Network states, and hotspots will be minted as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The team is currently constituting an Upgrade Readiness Working Group responsible for monitoring the migration process, and March 27th has been tentatively set as the date for the migration.
Reference: Helium Medium
