- Binance.US to delist Proof of Coverage token Helium (HNT) on March 21st, 2023 for not meeting the standards
- Kevin O Leary was investor in Helium which had scrutiny from crypto community
- Helium Founder, Amir Haleem had a backlash from crypto community on how tokens were minted in the early days of the project which to day is controversial – Forbes
- Delist also could be because of Helium’s move to Solana. More details in the article
Background
Helium was considered on of the coolest projects with proof of coverage. However the whole coolness went loose when Helium Foundation could not address the spoofing problem which exists till today and people who bought their hostspots ( equivalent to a miner) at a premium could not get their ROI due to the unstable blockchian & spoofing of the network. User often had network issues and spoofers were all over the blockchain making 100’s and 1000’s of dollars while real miners who created value ended up with disappointment.
Helium move to Solana:
Helium was considered as people’s network when it started. People were excited about the network and the helium community bought miners to expand the network. But as network grew bigger, the founder team decided to take things in their hands and shutter the issues. Instead of addressing the core issue, they become silent. The discord community explains this in much details. None of the Helium members provided support to the issues user faced.
To address the blockchian instability, they decided to move to Solana. During voting, their own members were against the move to Solana. More can be read about it here – Helium’s Move to Solana should have been more Democratized, Algorand’s bid didn’t stand a chance
It can be a good move for Helium if they successfully move to Solana by March 27th as planned. The users who bought Helium’s expensive device costing upto 2000$ to help the network may never see their ROI for years. Its granted that they are helping the network but its also true that value add is questionable at the moment.
Helium Founder, Amir Haleem controversy and Kevin O Leary Investment in Helium:
Forbes : Based on the Forbes article published on September 23rd 2022,” The 5 wallets connected to the founder and his family accounts for nearly 2.5million. Link can be found towards the end of the article”
False statement claimed by Helium founders:
- Helium claimed its mesh network used by Salesforce
- Helium claimed its mesh network used by Lime
- Helium overstated and falsified its business partnerships to gain more publicity and user confidence including city of San Jose
Details can be found towards then of of this article explaining in details – Helium – One more of Kevin O Leary’s investment may be a potential scam like FTX
Helium Foundation’s Response to Binance Delisting of its token
Helium Network’s Foundation expressed its disappointment with Binance.US’s decision to delist HNT but also acknowledged that they understand the exchange’s position.
The Foundation emphasized the importance of Helium’s transition to Solana and compared it to Ethereum’s shift to proof-of-stake in September 2022. The Foundation confirmed that their plans to move to Solana are progressing as planned and that they are fully committed to the transition. They also announced that they will keep communication lines open with the Binance.US team to educate them on the Helium network’s development roadmap and primary objectives.
Conclusion
The move will potentially help the troubled Helium blockchian with Solana’s robust network. How far will it successes depends on the implementation and how well it can grow for the next couple of years.
Link to the Forbes article on controversy – https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahemerson/2022/09/23/helium-crypto-tokens-peoples-network/?sh=2e5ad5607316
Binance delist – https://support.binance.us/hc/en-us/articles/13066258282391-Binance-US-Will-Delist-Helium-HNT-JasmyCoin-JASMY-on-March-21-2023
