Ethereum () challenger Solana () is rallying amid the news that Helium () is moving onto the SOL blockchain next month.
The Solana network recently announced that Helium is migrating from its current layer-1 solution to the smart contract blockchain platform.
“The Helium network is migrating from its current L1 to Solana at the end of March, bringing with nearly one million hotspots worldwide across the long range and 5G networks.”
Helium focuses on building out a network for the internet of things (IOT) powered by physical hotspots. Helium allows IOT devices connected to the network to communicate and share data. The HNT token is used to reward participants for validating coverage and providing wireless hotspots.
As the news became public, Solana rallied from a low of $22.34 on Thursday to a high of $27.11 yesterday, an over 21% surge. SOL is worth currently worth $26.15, while Helium is trading for $3.16 at time of writing.
The Helium network is telling its current users to prepare for the transition.
“The Helium Network is officially migrating to Solana on March 27th! Are you ready? Ensure that you’ve migrated to the Helium Wallet app for a smooth transition. Keep Hotspots active and online to receive IOT tokens.”
Helium says in a recent blog that the migration to the Solana ecosystem will allow its community to focus all its efforts on expanding decentralized wireless networks.
“Today, the Helium community has to split its focus on maintaining a purpose-built blockchain (our current Helium Layer-1 solution) and enabling the expansion of decentralized wireless networks. With the ability to power thousands of transactions per second, combined with its massive ecosystem of developers, applications and integrations, Solana has the speed and scale necessary to take on the blockchain responsibility while the Helium core developers and community can focus on building wireless protocols and enabling utility on these networks. Once completed, HNT will become natively compatible with other platforms within Solana’s ecosystem, adding utility for HNT, MOBILE and IOT token holders.”
