The Helium blockchain team will be submitting a chain variable transaction that will increase the
target interval between Proof-of-Coverage challenges (PoCs), changing the poc_challenge_interval
variable from 120 to 240 blocks. This update will effectively halve the rate of PoC transactions
that Hotspots generate.
As some folks have noticed, the block production rate is experiencing some growing pains due to the number of new Hotspots that are coming online. We strive to maintain block time reliability and this is one of the levers we have to keep the network stable.
How does this impact Hotspots?
The impact on individual Hotspots is participating in fewer PoCs per day but because this is being applied to all Hotspots in the network, system wide rewards distribution will be maintained. Individual reward numbers will change so, as always, it’s best to look at rewards over a multi-day/week period.
Plan
We intend to submit this chain variable around 4:00 PM PT, December 2, 2020. This blog post will be updated with links to the audit and a link to the transaction in explorer.