Solana Stumbles: 5-Hour Outage Hits Popular Blockchain (CORRECTED)

Solana, a popular high-speed blockchain known for its recent surge in activity, faced a major setback on Tuesday, February 6, 2024, when it experienced a five-hour outage. This disruption caused the native token, SOL, to dip from around $96 to below $94 before eventually recovering somewhat. Despite the recovery, SOL remains down 2.5%, underperforming the broader crypto market.

This outage is not the first for Solana. The network previously suffered an outage on February 25, 2023, attributed to a “deduplication failure,” according to data from Messari. Tuesday’s incident follows a similar pattern and highlights ongoing challenges with the platform’s stability.

The outage, which began around 9:53 UTC and lasted until 14:57 UTC, was attributed to a bug in the v1.17.20 update, requiring a network restart and upgrade to resolve. Fortunately, engineers were able to restore operations relatively quickly, and the network is now functioning again.

For those unfamiliar with blockchain terminology, it’s important to understand the key terms mentioned in the context of Solana’s outage. Validators are individuals or entities responsible for verifying transactions and maintaining the accuracy of the blockchain, while snapshots are backups of the blockchain at specific points in time, serving as restore points if something goes wrong.

The core developers of Solana are investigating the root cause of this outage and plan to release a report once their analysis is complete. Understanding what triggered this issue is crucial to prevent similar disruptions in the future.

The recent outage underscores the importance of stability and reliability in blockchain networks, especially as they continue to gain prominence in the financial and technological landscape.

As the investigation continues, the cryptocurrency community will be eagerly awaiting a detailed analysis of the incident and any measures that Solana developers plan to implement to enhance the network’s resilience.

Disclaimer: The article content is for general information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

Sources:
Benzinga.com