The Solana network faced a slowdown in block production on Feb. 25 following a validator software upgrade. The incident disrupted transactions and caused validators to downgrade their software in an attempt to restore network performance.
The technical issue began around 6:00 AM UTC, causing validators to downgrade to version 1.13 to restore transactions in the network. However, the downgrade was not enough to bring Solana back up and running, forcing the decision to restart the network on v1.13.6.
“The network’s block production rate has slowed significantly while validator software is being upgraded. Engineers are still working on a root cause analysis,” Solana’s Compass website states. The issue was related to the upgrade from 1.13 to 1.14, which slowed block finalization. The Solana network is currently restarting and requires 80% of online active validators to resume operation: “As more validators complete their restart this number will rise in line with the amount of stake they have delegated: this means larger validators such as CEX have an outsized impact on restart times.“
Solana’s validators discussed the resolution of the incident within hours of the issue. Infrastructure provider Chorus One noted on Twitter that the incident “demonstrates just how decentralized the web really is.”
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. The Solana blockchain was launched during the crypto boom of 2017. The project's internal testnet was launched in 2018, followed by several testnet stages before the mainnet's official launch in 2020.
