Helium Token Holders Approve Switch to Solana Blockchain

Token holders in decentralized wireless provider Helium have formally voted to move from its own Layer-1 blockchain to the Solana protocol.

On Wednesday, a majority community vote of 81.41% officially ratified the Helium Improvement Proposal (HIP 70) aimed at developing the network to meet user demand. Participants had to stake the Helium token (HNT) in order to engage in the vote. 

The final results showed 6,177 members voted in favor of the migration by staking some 12 million HNT ($57 million), while 1,270 voted against it. 

The Helium Foundation said the switch will allow HNT to become more compatible with other projects and crypto applications in decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens and other Web3 applications. 

“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,” Helium Foundation COO Scott Sigel said in a statement.

“Moving to the Solana blockchain allows us to focus our efforts on scaling the network as opposed to managing the blockchain itself.”

The Helium core developer team made the proposal, dubbed HIP 70, on Aug. 31. They said the move would “bring significant economies of scale through the vast range of composable Solana developer tools, features, and applications.” 

Helium still working on revenue streams amid Solana migration

Helium had attracted controversy in the weeks leading up to the proposal, with some questioning the network’s revenue potential. Prominent investors defended the startup, saying it was still building infrastructure and that revenue would come later. 

HNT, one of the project’s native tokens, is down 90% from its all-time high recorded as crypto prices peaked last November, correlating with the rest of the digital asset market.

In any case, as a result of Helium’s impending migration, all current ecosystem tokens, including HNT, MOBILE and IOT will be soon issued on Solana. 

Once the migration is completed, a new version of the Helium Wallet App will be available, the network said. The history of the previous blockchain will still be available to the public.

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