Helium Community Approves Crypto Wireless Network’s Migration to Solana

Helium, a blockchain-based network that powers wireless communication protocols powered by thousands of individual users, will migrate its own purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain to Solana blockchain.

The network, which initially focused on powering Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as sensors and trackers, currently has more than 950,000 nodes, or hotspots, with operators incentivized with crypto tokens.

The Helium Foundation announced the move after a community poll that saw a total of 7,447 votes cast closed Thursday morning, showing 81.41% support for the Helium Improvement Proposal (HIP 70).

Solana, which was designed to support massive scaling of decentralized applications (dapps), is currently the industry’s ninth largest blockchain network with a market capitalization of around $11.3 billion per CoinGecko.

Today’s news comes hot on the heels of news that Nova Labs, creator of the Helium Network, is partnering with German telecom giant T-Mobile to launch Helium Mobile, a 5G wireless service for smartphones.

Shifting focus to scaling the network

According to Scott Sigel, COO of the Helium Foundation, moving to Solana will allow the project to realize “an ambitious mission to deploy and manage wireless networks at scale.”

“Solana has a proven track record of powering some of the world’s most important decentralized initiatives, and they were an obvious choice for us to partner with. By moving to the Solana blockchain, we can focus our efforts on scaling the network as opposed to managing the blockchain itself , Sigel said in a statement.

The Helium Foundation, which first proposed the migration in August, said its developers chose Solana after analyzing several other blockchains over the past few months. The foundation emphasized that the migration will give users “better access in terms of hardware and software wallets, DeFi, NFT marketplaces and composition with other applications in the Solana ecosystem.

Another benefit of moving to the Solana blockchain, according to the Foundation, is that data transfer for devices will become “faster, more reliable and more scalable,” while the network’s own token will become naturally compatible with other innovative projects within the Solana ecosystem. .”

“Solana and its primary differentiators of scalability, low cost and energy efficiency are an ideal foundation for Helium to realize its ambitious mission,” said Anatoly Yakovenko, CEO of Solana Labs. “The Helium community’s vote to migrate to the Solana network is a tremendous endorsement of Solana as the foundation for the next stage of growth for the Helium ecosystem.”

According to the announcement, the migration is scheduled to take effect in the fourth quarter of this year, with a new version of the Helium Wallet app to be rolled out once the move is complete.

The migration will not affect the Helium ecosystem tokens HNT, MOBILE and IOT, which will be issued on the Solana network. HNT holders will also be able to use other wallets within the Solana ecosystem, such as Phantom or Solflare.