Solana faces slowdown in block production, network restarted

Solana network faced a slowdown in block production on Fev. 25 following the upgrade in the validator software. The incident resulted in disruptions to transactions and led validators to downgrade the software in an attempt to restore network performance. 

The technical issue started around 6:00 AM (UTC), leading validators to downgrade to version 1.13 in an effort to restore transactions in the network. The downgrade, however, was not enough to restore Solana to normal operations, forcing the decision to restart the network on v1.13.6.

The Solana network is currently restarting after an issue during the upgrade from 1.13 to 1.14 that slowed block finalization

Once validators with 80% of stake have restarted the network will resume

You can track the progress of the restart here:https://t.co/HclrUqWQ2y

– Solana Compass (@SolanaCompass) February 25, 2023

“The network experienced a significant slowdown in block production that coincided with an upgrade to validator software. Engineers are still conducting a root cause analysis,” noted Solana’s compass website.

Related: The state of Solana: Will the layer-1 protocol rise again in 2023?

The issue is linked to the upgrade from 1.13 to 1.14, which slowed block finalization. The Solana network is currently restarting, and to resume operations is necessary 80% of active stake online:

“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.”

A solution to the incident was discussed among Solana’s validators during a few hours following the issue. Infrastructure provider Chorus One noted in a Tweeter that the incident “demonstrated how genuinely decentralized the network is.” Chorus One continued: 

“Without all these debates, we would be back up in an hour. But, every decision along the way – whether to downgrade, whether to restart, when to switch from downgrade approach to restart approach – is debated. Voting happens. We end up taking 8-10 hours to recovery, instead of 1.”

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.