Helium To Transition To Solana Blockchain After Community Vote

Earlier today, the Helium community voted unanimously in support of a move to the Solana network. Hence, the Helium team will work on moving the HIP 70 protocol will move to Solana in the coming weeks.

Helium’s Wireless Network To Transition To Solana

The Helium community concluded their vote to move to the Solana blockchain on Thursday morning. The HIP (Helium Improvement Proposal) 70 saw 6,177 members voting to support the move.

However, 1,270 did not want the move. Participants staked their HNT tokens to take part in the vote. For a decision to stand, over two-thirds of the community must vote in support or disagreement of a motion.

According to Helium, it has reduced the validator’s unstacking period from 5 months to 3 months. The aim is to support the Solana migration. 

Meanwhile, moving to Solana is part of the network’s plan to improve its scalability. Therefore, Helium’s governance, applications, and tokens would be moved to Solana.

Scott Sigel, Helium Foundation’s COO, said Solana is a good option for the community. He acknowledged that Solana has a great record of hosting leading decentralized initiatives. 

As a result, Sigel added that the network believes Solana is the best platform to scale Helium’s ecosystem.

Furthermore, the recent development means Helium will launch its native token anand other projects on the Solana network. However, Helium’s native coin would remain HNT and not SOL. 

Other Industry Participants Unhappy With Helium’s Choice 

The report added that users would have a Helium Wallet App after the move. This will also have the L1 protocol history to ensure users do not lose their data.

Users must upgrade their wallet app to enjoy the latest features and applications. Meanwhile, HNT holders are free to use other crypto wallets in the Solana blockchain. 

Although the latest vote supported the move, several individuals were disappointed with the decision. Also, several crypto proponents chastised Helium’s choice to abandon its blockchain in favor of Solana’s.

Before the recent decision to switch, John Woods, the CTO of Algorand blockchain, tweeted that Algorand would have been a better option for Helium. Additionally, Wood stated that other industry parties inquired if Algorand would become Helium’s destination rather than Solana. 

Silvio Micali, the founder of Algorand, agreed with Wood’s statements. He stated that the platform is prepared to assist Helium in pursuing a scalable and secure protocol.

Given Solana’s recent network issues, many questioned its fit for the Helium environment before the recent transfer. Some believe that Polkadot or Polygon would have been better choices for Helium.

Others, on the other hand, stated that Solana is a worthy blockchain that has substantially improved over the years, supporting several projects.