Helium Community Okays Move to Solana Blockchain After Latest Vote

Members of the Helium community have voted to move the native HIP 70 protocol to the Solana blockchain. The proposal to move to Solana got passed after a unanimous decision from members of the Helium Network.

Helium Migrates Its Wireless Network to Solana

The proposal regarding the HIP 70 move to the Solana Blockchain concluded Thursday morning as 81% of the community voted in favor of the action. 

The voting process requires participants to stake their Helium Token (HNT) to participate in the on-chain voting. However, the final decision is made after the community casts a two-thirds majority vote. 

Moreover, 6,177 members support the move after acquiring more than 13 million Helium tokens. However, 1,270 community members voted against the migration.

A further statement from Helium indicates that the unstacking period for validators is reduced to 3 months from 5 months to give more support to the migration to Solana.

The core developers of the Helium Network proposed the migration of the Proof-of-Coverage and Data Transfer Accounting alongside one of the platform’s systems to the Solana Blockchain. 

Furthermore, shifting to the Solana network is to help ensure the protocol’s scaling. As a result, Helium’s tokens, applications, and governance are now transferred to the Solana blockchain. 

Regarding the choice of Solana, the COO of the Helium Foundation, Scott Sigel, noted that Solana’s record of hosting some of the leading decentralized projects is a great choice. “The Helium Network sees this as the right platform to scale its ecosystem,” adds Sigel.

What to Expect

Helium’s move to the Solana Blockchain implies that the HNT and other applications will be issued on the new platform. However, HNT will continue to be Helium’s native network token. 

After the move, a new Helium Wallet App will be available to users, coupled with the Helium L1 protocol history, and will remain public. Users can access the latest applications upon upgrading their existing wallet app. In addition, HNT holders could use other wallets within the Solana network.

Despite the latest vote supporting the move, many were dissatisfied with the outcome. Meanwhile, Helium’s decision to ditch its blockchain for that of Solana has been criticized.

Before the migration to Solana, Algorand’s CTO, John Woods, revealed in a Twitter post that Algorand would have been the best for Helium. 

Wood added that other industry stakeholders had made inquiries to see Algorand emerge as Helium’s destination, not Solana. Algorand’s founder, Silvio Micali, also echoed Wood’s sentiment. 

Micali noted that the network is ready to support Helium’s quest for a secure and scalable protocol.

Many thought Solana’s suitability for the Helium ecosystem before the latest migration was faulty, considering the network trouble. Some think Polkadot or Matic would have been a better fit for Helium than Solana.

However, others noted that Solana is a battle-ready blockchain network that has improved significantly following the frequency it has experienced.