Helium community members have voted to abandon their own Blockchain for a new and much faster alternative. So, does this news make Solana (SOL) ‘Buy Now’? Expert RJ Fulton of consulting giant Montley Fool explores the answer to this question.
A new partnership needs a new Blockchain
cryptocoin.com As you follow, decentralized internet provider Helium (HNT) announced on September 22 that it will migrate its blockchain to Solana (SOL). For this, the community made a survey. After the survey, more than 81% of the nearly 7,500 votes voted to abandon Helium’s current blockchain and switch to lightning Solana. The team plans for this transition to happen quickly. Helium co-founder Amir Haleem is optimistic that this will be finished in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, Helium plans to enter a new service area. That’s why, according to experts, abandoning Blockchain and moving to Solana is an important and necessary move. Helium announced a partnership with wireless network provider T-Mobile (TMUS) on September 20. Thus, it will provide a decentralized, blockchain-based 5G network.
Helium started as a decentralized wireless network for Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as sensors and trackers. It also rewarded users with tokens for running hotspots. Now, Helium aims to do the same. However, a 5G network is required for smartphones to take advantage of the extended coverage. Hotspot operators and users of the 5G network will have the opportunity to receive a new token called MOBILE as a reward for data sharing and maintenance of the network.
The number of IoT hotspots has approached 1 million active nodes. Also, Helium has now added 5G coverage. With these in mind, there is a serious need to move to a Blockchain that can support this broad network. Solana has the opportunity to do this easily. With the move to Solana, Helium will be able to enjoy several of the benefits Blockchain has to offer. The first of these is speed. Solana is one of the fastest blockchains.
Probably the most important benefit of this move is that Helium now needs to focus on one thing. To expand and support its network. Prior to the transition, Helium developers had to make sure the Blockchain was functioning properly and efficiently in addition to protecting the network. But now they can leave this extra work to Solana (SOL).
A due diligence for Helium
Since 2019, Helium’s goal of creating a decentralized, blockchain approach to providing the internet has evolved rapidly. However, as innovative as it is, Helium has gotten its fair share of press. An article published by Forbes reports that about half of HNT was mined and sent to just 30 wallets in the first three months of the network’s launch. These wallets belonged to the friends and family of the creators of Helium. Meanwhile, Helium was worth $250 million when it peaked last year.
The news is definitely a cause for concern. However, there is increasing demand for Helium’s decentralized internet model. In addition, experts say that investors will benefit from it. Helium will need to build on an existing inventory of 5,000 5G access points to somewhere around 50,000 for T-Mobile to provide adequate support for 5G users. Given its past history and the long road ahead, investors should check back on Helium in a few months to make sure its infrastructure is growing.
How is Solana (SOL) doing?
As for Solana (SOL), this migration of Helium will put lightning-fast Blockchain to the test on an unprecedented scale. Yet the developers built Solana to do exactly that. Solana provides projects with a fast and cost-effective Blockchain solution to support their development.
If Solana can prove she can handle such a task, it could be the start of a stream of more projects transitioning. And like HNT, the SOL price has also suffered a huge drop this year. It reached the ATH level of around $260 last November. However, later on, it saw drastic declines. SOL is currently only trading around $30. Solana has a more positive public relations background and the potential to be the future home of other projects. Therefore, it is possible for investors to see this as an opportunity to take advantage of some discounted prices.
