More than 80% of voters agreed that the network should use the Solana blockchain. The choice came at the cost of the network’s ambitions of developing its own. Helium is a wireless crypto community which runs a decentralized WiFi network.
The Proposed HIP 70, The Improved Scalability and Productivity of The Migration
Helium members voted to move to the Solana blockchain (also known as HIP 70). 81% of voters supported switching to the Solana blockchain in Thursday morning’s referendum.
All members who wanted to vote were required to stake their Helium tokens (HNT) beforehand. At least two-thirds of Helium’s voting population have to approve the measure for it to be approved. 6,173 community members voted for the migration. Those in favor staked 12 million HNT coins, while 1270 community members opposed it.
Helium’s developers have advocated migrating to it to improve the protocol’s scalability. The advocacy became necessary since transactions on the Solana blockchain are substantially more efficient. When Helium completes the migration, all apps, tokens, and governance related to Helium will move to the Solana network.
Scott Sigel, Chief Operating Officer of the Helium Foundation, was quoted in a statement on the switch to Solana. He said they decided to work with Solana because of the company’s history of supporting some of the world’s most significant decentralized projects. He said that with the Solana blockchain in place, they could shift their attention from blockchain management to network expansion.
What Variations Can Be Expected Once Migration Has Occurred?
After the transfer, Solana will have HyperNetwork, Mobile Internet, and IOT tokens. Moreover, these tokens will still function as currency inside the Helium ecosystem. After the switch, a whole new edition of the Helium Wallet Application will be accessible.
All the stored data on the Helium blockchain will be made accessible to the general public. The new wallet software will be available to token holders through an update to the previous app. In addition to Phantom and Solflare, token holders can access various wallet options inside the Solana ecosystem.
While most locals voted for the move, not everyone is happy about it. Helium’s Algorand-focused VC, Borderless Capital, urged rethinking its Solana move.
Founder Describes Justification for Solana Move
Since 2021, Helium has rapidly expanded, and the network is now very close to reaching a million active nodes. The protocol’s developer, Amir Haleem, says they first questioned Ethereum’s capacity to host a decentralized network. The doubt was due to its low throughput and high gas pricing.
In light of this, the Helium team, according to Haleem, developed their layer-1 blockchain network. However, Haleem warned that this had problems because everything was interconnected. Therefore, the team’s efforts to fix individual problems frequently caused network failures.
Haleem thought Helium required a more definite answer for firms and consumers. Haleem says this was a critical step towards growing the Helium ecosystem. Solana’s speed—it can handle hundreds of transactions per second—makes it a viable candidate.
Solana accepts Helium private keys, unlike other blockchains. Haleem says this would make switching from Helium to Solana easier.