- Solana suffers a new network outage.
- The Solona network has a poor reputation for network reliability.
- Critics have lined up to mock Solana.
Following almost a year of Solana network uptime, the blockchain suffered a jarring setback on February 6 when a major outage halted transaction activity across the chain. The outage triggered an outpouring of criticism, with influencers and users renewing past attacks centered around Solana’s viability as a scalable blockchain.
Solana Critics Sharpen Their Knives
Solana’s viability as a scalable blockchain was questioned by trader Satoshi Flipper, who didn’t hold back in calling the protocol “a garbage network” while blaming the outage on its cheap transaction protocol design.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson responded to Solana’s outage by saying, “This always works,” accompanied by a meme depicting the now-debunked method of fixing Nintendo cartridges that didn’t load by blowing dust from the contact points. The Cardano chain boasts a 100% network uptime record to date.
X influencer Lucid echoed Hoskinson’s humorous approach, calling Solana “the McDonald’s Ice Cream machine of blockchain technology.”
YouTuber Ivan on Tech posted a more empathetic message, reminding users that Solana is improving its network reliability. However, Ivan on Tech cautioned his followers that liquidations loom once the network is restored while also drawing attention to the frequent outages hindering Solana’s ability to compete with Ethereum.
While critics have taken the opportunity to deride Solana’s reliability, the network’s developers are aware of the issue and are working to restore service.
Patch Deployed
Solana devs began investigating the issue in response to the outage and released a validator software patch within two hours. The devs requested that mainnet validator operators update to the latest v1.17.20 version, and to restart processes. The network has yet to complete the restart at the time of writing.
According to the Solana Status website, the last major outage occurred on February 25, 2023, marking almost a year of network uptime. Before February 2023, network downtime events occurred sporadically every few months.
However, January 2022 was troublesome as the network suffered six major and three partial outages during that period, cementing a reputation for network unreliability.
On the Flipside
- “Ilmoi,” the CEO of Solana NFT marketplace Tensor, stated that network outages result from Solana’s move-fast approach that focuses on innovation over reliability.
- Solana outages highlight blockchain architectures’ tradeoffs between decentralization, security, and scalability.
Why This Matters
Solana outages continue to damage user trust while stoking the fires of tribalism. The network now needs long-term solutions or risks joining the many also-ran blockchains.
Read about record-breaking inflows into the Solana Grayscale trust here:
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Find out more on Binance’s attempt to root out employee corruption here:
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