Helium sets to Migrate to Solana

Helium Network has announced its official timetable for moving to the Solana blockchain. According to a Helium publication, the network proposes March 27, 2023, as the migration date. The migration will take place over the course of 24 hours, and the existing Helium blockchain will be suspended during this time.

On the migration day, activities involving data transfer and proof-of-coverage will not be affected. A chain variable will be used by core developers to initiate a chain halt. 

After the halting block, validators will cease producing blocks, and chain followers like routers, blockchain nodes, and ETLs will no longer sync blocks and transactions. At this point, the network and account states will be effectively frozen.

Furthermore, transactions won’t synchronize on helium after the chain stops because validators have stopped creating blocks. A final snapshot of the blockchain will be taken, and hotspots will be issued as nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

According to the team;

“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.”

The transfer to Solana was made possible by the community’s approval of HIP-70 in September 2022, with over 80% voting in favour.

The migration of proof-of-coverage and data transfer processing to Oracles eliminates key scaling barriers for each of these core functional areas. 

To ensure a seamless migration, a community-led upgrade group will oversee the migration process and have the final say on the migration date.

This group will consist of a wide cross-section of technical specialists from the community and various stakeholders who will assess the migration, verify adequate documentation is available, and raise any concerns before proceeding.

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