After a community vote, the Helium Foundation announced that it will move from its own blockchain to the Solana (SOL) network. The vote, HIP 70 (Helium Improvement Proposal), concluded in the early hours of Thursday, 22nd September, with 81.41% (6,177 community members) voting in favor of the move. Only 1,270 members voted against the cause.
The aim is to connect the world’s “largest decentralized wireless network with the fastest growing ecosystem in crypto.” The transition to Solana will allow Helium developers to create more interoperable applications. According to the press release, the move will accelerate network growth and ease of use for developers. Additionally, the move will further the firm’s goals of providing secure, widespread, and affordable connectivity. The transition will also transfer all tokens, applications, and governance to the SOL network.
The Helium Foundation and the Solana Foundation are working out a way to have a seamless and efficient transition.
Scott Sigel, COO of the Helium Foundation, stated,
“We have an ambitious mission of deploying and managing wireless networks at scale and moving to Solana allows us to do that. Solana has a proven track record powering some of the world’s most important decentralized initiatives and they were an obvious choice for us to partner with.”
Sigel further highlighted how the SOL blockchain would help Helium’s efforts in scaling its network, “as opposed to managing the blockchain itself.”
Meanwhile, Anatoly Yakovenko, CEO of Solana Labs and co-founder of Solana, said,
“Solana and its primary differentiators of scalability, low cost, and energy efficiency are an ideal foundation for Helium to realize its ambitious mission. 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.”
Will Solana help realize Helium’s dreams?
Solana (SOL) has had its fair share of flack due to hacks and exploits that have often plagued its network. However, the project has nonetheless proven to be a worthy contender for many blockchains. So much so, that FTX chief, Sam Bankman-Fried once called the project as being the most “underrated.”
Regardless of the hacks and exploits, Helium’s move to the SOL network might just work out. It will most certainly increase Helium’s scalability and interoperability issues and thus might just lead to more HNT adoption.
At press time, SOL was trading at $31.98, up by 1.2% in the last 24 hours. However, the token is down by 6.1% in the weekly charts. Furthermore, it is down by 87.7% from its all-time high of $259.96, which it attained in November of 2021.
