Solana Network Stumbles: On-Chain Trading Slows After ‚Forking‘ Incident

• The Solana Network suffered a tech issue on Saturday which resulted in an inability to trade crypto, transfer assets, or do anything else on-chain.
• Validators rushed to remedy the issue and investigate the root cause of what was believed to be a bug in the network’s software.
• Activity has since resumed but is still slower than usual as some validators downgrade their software in an attempt to restore activity.

Solana Network Stumbles Due To ‚Forking‘ Incident

The Solana Network experienced a tech incident early Saturday morning, resulting in near complete shutdown of activity on the protocol. After validator operators and network engineers attempted to remedy the issue, it was determined that there may have been a bug in the network’s software causing it to “fork” (creating conflicting versions of its transaction history).

Transaction Throughput Falls Off A Cliff

As a result of these technical troubles, users were unable to trade crypto, transfer assets or do anything else on-chain. Transaction throughput fell off significantly from around 5000 TPS 15 minutes prior to just 93 TPS by 2am ET. This was an alarming reminder of similar issues experienced by Solana back in 2022 which led to reforms regarding how they manage incoming traffic.

Investigation Into Root Cause Underway

The Solana Foundation says that the root cause is “still unknown” and an investigation is underway. It remains unclear at this time how long it will take for full functionality and performance levels to be restored across the network.

Validators Downgrade Software In Attempt To Restore Activity

In order to get things functioning properly again, some validators are downgrading their software with hopes of restoring activity on the network more quickly than normal protocols would allow. Despite these efforts however, transactions are still much slower than average for now as work continues behind-the-scenes towards resolving this issue once and for all.

Conclusion

It appears that while activity has resumed somewhat on Solana following this incident over the weekend, it may take some time before things return fully back up and running again as expected. This event serves as yet another reminder of why blockchain networks need robust security protocols if they are going to achieve widespread adoption across various industries moving forward.