Solana network is down AGAIN

Solana, a highly active low-latency blockchain, recently encountered a significant outage lasting approximately five hours. During this time, the value of Solana‘s SOL token experienced a temporary drop, falling from around $96 to below $94. However, the token has since displayed resilience, rebounding and recouping most of its lost value.

Transactions on the Solana network resumed processing around 15:00 UTC after being halted around 09:52 UTC. This interruption marked nearly a year since the network’s last outage on Feb. 25, 2023.

During the outage, Solana Mainnet-Beta faced performance issues, resulting in a halt in block progression. Core engineers and validators actively investigated the issue, with updates provided by Laine, a Solana validator. Following the investigation, core engineers identified a solution and began work on a new version for validators to implement.

Network Restart Preparation

Validators initiated the process of generating snapshots using local ledger data to facilitate a network restart. The Solana Foundation, responsible for network maintenance, announced that the new validator software release includes a patch addressing the issue that caused the cluster to halt. Validator operators were advised to prepare for a network upgrade and restart.

Node operators were alerted via Solana’s Discord channel that failure to upgrade to the latest software would lead to the loss of delegation status for the Solana blockchain. This would result in a cessation of rewards for node operators, potentially compromising network security due to reduced node distribution.