Helium Network developers believe that the migration to Solana blockchain will be “the most significant upgrade to Helium Network scalability and reliability.”
Helium Network, a service that uses its Helium Hotspot miners to incentivize WiFi providers while delivering cost-competitive internet services, has announced plans to migrate to Solana blockchain on March 27th.
According to the blog post shared on February 17th, along with the transition to Solana blockchain, Helium Network will deploy Oracles, making it “the most significant upgrade to Helium Network scalability and reliability.”
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In the blog post, Helium Network highlighted that the upgrade is set to “take place over a 24-hour transition period” and will affect all Hotspots, wallets, and Helium Network states.
In a nutshell, on March 27th, Core Developers will halt the current Helium blockchain. Helium Network validators will stop producing blocks, while ETLs, blockchain nodes, and routers will stop the synchronization of blocks and transactions.
Afterward, the final snapshot will be taken. In this stage, Helium Network will migrate all accounts and tokens to the Solana blockchain. In the announcement, Helium highlighted that all Hotspots will be minted as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
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.
On top of that, the team behind Helium Network noted that a majority of HNT or MOBILE token holders, as well as Hotspot Owners, will not need to take any additional actions to engage in the upgrade. However, the team highlighted that the large fleet owners may want to test “specific claim functionality or develop custom wallet solutions.”
Helium Network is gathering an Upgrade Readiness Working Group to ensure the successful migration to the Solana blockchain. The group will consist of technical experts, community members, and stakeholders. The main goal of the Upgrade Readiness Working Group will be to “review the migration, ensure the availability of sufficient documentation, and raise any concerns before moving forward.”
The transition to the Solana blockchain comes after, in September, the Helium Network community approved HIP-70.