- The price of Helium has been rising since February 17 after the company confirmed it was set to migrate to Solana.
- Helium Network will also deploy oracles after migrating to Solana.
- At press time, HNT was trading at $2.87, up 1.45%.
Helium price has been rising for the past two days straight after Helium Network confirmed through a blog on its website that it will be migrating to the Solana blockchain next month. Despite the slight pullback today, the HNT token has gained about 14% since the news broke out.
According to helium’s post, the protocol has set March 27, 2023, as the date for the migration to Solana. The protocol is seeking to increase reliability and scalability by moving to Solana, which is increasingly becoming a darling for blockchain protocols. The move to Solana was approved after the community passed the HIP-70 proposal on September 22 last year.
Helium says that a working group of community volunteers is being formed to oversee the entire migration process.
24-hour blackout as Helium migrates
 Helium says that there will be a 24-hour transition period, in which the Helium blockchain will be halted. Data transfer and proof-of-coverage activities will however remain unaffected during that time.
The Helium team stated:
“This upgrade will encompass all wallets, Hotspots, and Helium Network state, and will take place over a 24-hour transition period commencing at approximately 1500 UTC / 10:00 AM ET… 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.”
According to the Helium team, after the 24-hour halt, validators will stop producing new blocks. A final snapshot of the blockchain will be taken after all the accounts and tokens migrate to the Solana blockchain. Hotspots will then be minted as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
HNT and MOBILE token holders will not have to do anything to participate in the migration. A majority of hotspot owners will also not be required to take any action during the migration.