On Thursday, the Helium Foundation announced that it will be moving its mainnet to the Solana blockchain following a community vote. According to the proposal, the coverage verification and data transmission methods will be transferred to Helium Oracles.
It’s official! HIP 70 voting is over. #Helium They move to @Solana blockchain! pic.twitter.com/V2WIajou7R
— Helium (@helium) September 22, 2022
Meanwhile, Helium tokens and governance will be transferred to the Solana blockchain. According to the developers, the benefits of the move include more HNT token available for subDAO reward pools, more consistent mining, more reliable data transfer, more use for HNT and subDAO tokens, and more ecosystem support.
Helium is a blockchain wireless communication protocol. In the same week, Nova Labs, the creator of Helium, signed an agreement with the American telecommunications provider T-Mobile that will allow subscribers of Helium Mobile’s cryptory-powered mobile service to receive crypto rewards. Helium Mobile subscribers on this mobile plan can opt-in to win token rewards by sharing coverage quality data and helping identify Helium dead-spots nationwide. A 5G capable device is required.
As a decentralized wireless network, Helium provides open source coverage worldwide. In the year Since its launch in 2019, more than 900,000 hotspots using helium have been deployed, with 1,000 units added every day. Since the program was activated in August 2022, there are currently more than 2,500 active Helium hotspots with 5G in 889 US cities.
Solana, Helium’s new blockchain is known as a hub for building decentralized applications. When you factor in voice transactions, Solana’s daily transactions have grown from 100 million to 200 million per day. The number of blockchain users has surpassed 1 million since May. Helium developers have pointed to the shift because of its potential to improve operational efficiency of projects.