Helium Network sets migration to Solana for March

Communications protocol Helium Network has set March 27 as the date for its migration to the Solana blockchain and deployment of oracles as it seeks to improve scalability and reliability.

According to a Feb. 17 blog post, the transition will take place over 24 hours on March 27, during which time 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.” 

ATTENTION!

The Helium Network is officially migrating to @solana on March 27th! Are you ready?

Ensure that you’ve migrated to the Helium Wallet app for a smooth transition. Keep Hotspots active and online to receive IOT tokens.

More in this thread https://t.co/rzk2xcBEJ0

— Helium (@helium) February 17, 2023

After the chain halt, validators will stop producing blocks and transactions won’t 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), the team said. 

“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 fleet 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 on Sept. 22, with over 80% voting in favour. 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 last September, Helium 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.