Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko recently announced that a bug causing reduced functionality in the Solana blockchain ecosystem has been identified and patched. This bug resulted in transaction failures and a slowdown in block finalization. Yakovenko mentioned that while the network glitch is fixed, implementing other key updates may not be straightforward. Dealing with bugs is more complex than keeping a network active, as it requires going through a full release and test pipeline. This announcement comes after co-founder Raj Gokal’s post addressing concerns about the Solana chain and the deployment of engineering teams to tackle the issues. Since March, the Solana network has been addressing complaints about ongoing transaction issues, with a 77.4% failure rate.
Dune Analytics data showed that over 70% of non-voting transactions on Solana failed since the start of April, a significant increase from the 54% failure rate in March. The Solana Foundation has announced measures to respond to network congestion, such as optimizing Computing Unit (CU) usage and recommending developers to specify a compute unit budget to improve efficiency. A major update (v1.18) has been scheduled for April to address congestion issues and enhance network performance and reliability. The Solana blockchain has been experiencing outages and network congestion issues, which have impacted transaction processing and node communication delays.
Solana rebounded from FTX’s collapse in 2022, with the price of its native token, SOL, dropping below $10 at that time. However, the asset surpassed $200 in March 2024 and is predicted to reach its all-time high of $260 by the end of 2024. The platform’s surge is driven by its identity as a smart contracts platform that enables fast and cost-effective cryptocurrency transactions, offering an alternative to Ethereum’s congested ecosystem with high gas fees. Projects like popular memecoins Bonk (BONK) and dogwifhat (WIF) have contributed to network congestion on Solana by creating crypto millionaires and breaking into the top 50 tokens by market cap.
Blockchain expert Dagnum-PI data showed that Solana is currently congested, with an average ping time (APT) of 20-40 seconds, indicating delays in node communication. The analyst also noted a ping loss ranging from 30% to 50%, leading to transaction failures and delays, with up to 50% to 80% failed transactions. High levels of spam from memecoin activity and Miner Extractable Value (MEV) have overwhelmed Solana’s capacity, causing network outages. Despite the value rise of Solana, concerns have been raised about the network’s history of outages and the impact of congestion on the blockchain. Solana has experienced nine blockchain network outages since 2021, with over 150 hours of downtime, including instances where liquidation drove users away from the platform.
Overall, Solana has been addressing a network glitch that resulted in transaction failures and delays, with the co-founders announcing that the bug has been identified and patched. The Solana Foundation has introduced measures to optimize CU usage and recommended developers to specify compute unit budgets for transactions. The platform has rebounded from past challenges and has seen a surge in price, driven by its identity as a smart contracts platform and the success of projects like memecoins. Despite these advancements, concerns remain about network outages and congestion, prompting the Solana team to schedule a major update to address these issues and improve network performance and reliability.
