The Solana Token
The Helium Network runs on the Solana blockchain, an extremely fast, scalable, and low-cost blockchain.
Interacting with the Solana blockchain requires a small fee (average transaction fee is 0.000014 SOL) paid in SOL tokens, which is massively cheaper than the original Helium blockchain transaction fee of $0.35 in DC.
All interactions with the Solana blockchain require fees, including sending tokens, staking tokens, making payments, swapping tokens, minting NFTs, claiming rewards from your Hotspots, and all on-chain Helium transactions.
Solana Accounts and Rent
Information is stored on the Solana blockchain, such as token balances, NFTs, or other data, in "accounts." Keeping this data on-chain takes up space, so Solana charges a "rent" fee of ~0.002 SOL on accounts.
Rent Facts:
- Each account has an individual rent fee.
- There is typically one account for each token type.
- Having more accounts (meaning more token types) requires more rent fees.
- Closing accounts can return rent to your wallet.
Performing more complex transactions, which include creating accounts, may require more SOL. For example, if a Wallet does not have enough SOL for rent fees, the Wallet cannot create new accounts to hold tokens, and transactions will fail.
This includes reasserting your Hotspot's location, locking HNT to gain veHNT, and potentially more complex DeFi actions where multiple accounts must be created (even temporarily).
Locking up HNT to gain veHNT creates new accounts and requires ~0.014 SOL. It is best practice to hold more than 0.02 SOL in a Wallet to fund additional accounts in the future.
As part of the migration to Solana, the Helium Foundation provides every Helium Wallet with 0.00139 SOL (enough for 100 standard transactions). Wallets must be migrated or seeded to receive this.
SOL Swap Utility
If you do not have enough SOL, you can use this tool to swap HNT for 0.02 SOL. Open this page from within the browser of the Helium Wallet App to swap a small amount of HNT for SOL.