Helium Network sets migration to Solana for March

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Communications protocol Helium Network has defined March 27 as the date for its migration to the Solana blockchain and deployment of Oracles, seeking to improve scalability and reliability.

According to a blog post on Feb. 17, a 24-hour transition period will take place on March 27, during which the current Helium blockchain will be halted. Proof-of-Coverage and data transfer activities will remain unaffected. A working group of community volunteers is being formed to oversee the migration process. Helium’s team stated:

“This upgrade will encompass all wallets, Hotspots, and Helium Network state, and will take place over a 24-hour transition period commencing at approximately 1500 UTC / 10:00 AM ET.” 

After the chain halt, validators will stop producing blocks and transactions won’t be sync. A final snapshot of the blockchain will be taken after the migration of all accounts and tokens to the Solana blockchain, and Hotspots will be minted as nonfungible tokens (NFTs), noted the team. 

“Note that any rewards generated by Proof-of-Coverage activity in the prior 24 hours will be available to claim in your Helium Wallet after the transition period. Oracles will update claimable balances, and Hotspot Owners will be able to use the new claim function.”

Holders of HNT and MOBILE tokens will not need to take any action to participate in the upgrade. The same applies for the majority of Hotspot owners, although large fleets’ owners may be able to test specific claim functionality or develop custom wallet solutions.

The move to Solana was enabled by the community passing HIP-70 with over 80% of approval on Sep. 22. At the time, developers highlighted the migration benefits would include more of its native token available to subDAO reward pools, improved mining, as well as more reliable data transfer and ecosystem support.

Also September last year, Helium’s creator Nova Labs announced an agreement with American telecommunications provider T-Mobile to launch a crypto-powered mobile service enabling subscribers to earn crypto rewards for sharing data about coverage quality and helping identify Helium dead-spot locations nationwide.

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