Solana’s slowdown: Exec reveals what’s clogging the network

Solana faced a surge in transaction failures, prompting worries regarding its network activity.
Experts emphasized that Solana’s underlying protocol remains highly efficient.

Lately, there have been many unsuccessful transactions on the Solana [SOL] network, causing worry among users about its capacity to manage heightened network usage. This issue has ignited discussions among the community regarding Solana’s potential role as a prominent blockchain solution in the future.

In a recent post on X (previously Twitter), Austin Federa, the Communications Chief at Solana Labs, provided insights into the reasons behind the network’s heavy traffic.

Core developers from Anza, Firedancer, Jito, and other key contributors are putting in long hours (and getting little sleep) to strengthen Solana’s networking infrastructure in response to the unmatched network activity it is currently experiencing.

What caused this congestion?

During many conversations and arguments about why there’s so much traffic, everyone agrees on one thing: The existing software system can’t manage the heavy volume of users.

With attempts being made to deal with this matter, it’s important to consider the root cause: What led to this predicament developing in the first place?

In response to this Federa added,

In simpler terms, we recognized that QUIC’s implementation on the Agave validator client had a limitation or issue, which was well-known. We planned to tackle this problem in the future.

In simpler terms, although Solana employs the QUIC protocol for its network communication, there are presently identified shortcomings and glitches within this specific implementation. These problems may not imply that Solana’s underlying design has any fundamental flaws.

Clearing the air around QUIC, Richard Patel, a developer at Firedancer Solana, added,

“QUIC is not inherently vulnerable DDoS (it still sucks).”

In SOL’s defense, Matt Sorg, Solana’s Tech and Product Lead in his blog post noted,

“Solana’s protocol is extremely efficient and has plenty of room to grow in terms of scalability. The challenge at hand doesn’t affect the transaction processing itself and there are no unsuccessful transactions occurring.”

Adding to the fray, Mert Mumtaz, the CEO of Helius Lab, elaborated,

“Solana’s current issue is not a design flaw, it’s an implementation bug.”

Will Solana stand the test of time?

Although the number of failed transactions has gone down, there are still worries that the network may not be able to manage heavy usage spikes.

Remarking on the same, Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, noted,

“Congestion issues are more frustrating than experiencing total liveness failures. In the case of liveness failure, you can quickly identify and address the problem by applying a patch. However, with congestion, you have to go through the entire release and testing process, which makes shipping quickly an impossible feat.”

During this challenging period, the value of SOL decreased by 6.16% in a single day, suggesting significant market demand to sell.

In spite of the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) circulating among some circles, Santiment’s social media analysis reveals that over half (54%) of Solana backers hold positive, bullish attitudes towards SOL.

Supporters argue that Solana’s cheaper transaction costs and quicker processing times than Ethereum give it an edge in the long run, making it a competitive contender in the market.

2024-04-11 09:11

What caused this congestion?

Will Solana stand the test of time?

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