The Solana network faced a slowdown in block production on February 1. 25 following the upgrade in the software of the validator. The incident caused disruptions in transactions and led validators to downgrade the software in an effort to restore network performance.
The technical issue began around 6:00 a.m. (UTC), leading validators to downgrade to version 1.13 in a bid to restore transactions to the network. The downgrade, however, was not enough to restore Solana to normal operation, forcing the decision to reboot the network to v1.13.6.
The Solana network is currently restarting after an issue while updating from 1.13 to 1.14 which slowed block finalization
Once validators with 80% participation restart, the network will resume
You can follow the reboot progress here:https://t.co/HclrUqWQ2y
— Solana Compass (@SolanaCompass) February 25, 2023
“The network experienced a significant slowdown in block production which coincided with an upgrade to validation software. Engineers are still performing root cause analysis,” noted Solana Compass website.
Related: The State of Solana: Will Layer 1 Protocol Rise Again in 2023?
The problem is related to the update from 1.13 to 1.14, which slowed down the finalization of blocks. The Solana network is currently restarting, and to resume operations it takes 80% active online:
“As more validators complete their restarts, this number will increase based on the amount of stake they have delegated: this means that larger validators such as CEX have an outsized impact on times reboot.”
A solution to the incident was discussed between Solana validators for a few hours after the issue. Infrastructure provider Chorus One noted in a Tweeter that the incident “demonstrated how truly decentralized the network is.” Chorus One continued:
“If it weren’t for all that debate, we’d be back in an hour. But, every decision along the way – downgrade, restart, when to go from downgrade approach to restart approach – is being debated. The vote takes place. We end up taking 8-10 hours to recover, instead of 1.”
Solana is an open source layer 1 blockchain. Its third-generation network architecture is designed to facilitate the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps). The Solana blockchain was launched during the ICO boom of 2017. The project’s internal testnet was released in 2018, followed by several testnet phases before the official mainnet launch in 2020.
