Funding
Solana Network Faces Near Halt as 29% of Staked SOL Goes Offline Due to Routing Failure
On Wednesday, the Solana network experienced a significant disruption when approximately 28.83% of all staked SOL went offline due to a routing failure at the hosting provider Teraswitch. This incident brought the network alarmingly close to the critical threshold of 33.34%, where transaction finality would cease, leaving the network unable to confirm transactions as permanent.
The routing glitch originated at Teraswitch's Miami site and quickly spread to other locations, affecting twelve sites worldwide, although North America remained unaffected. The network reached 86% of the way to a halt before recovering within 33 minutes. During the peak of the outage, around 20 million SOL was at risk of being unconfirmed, with nearly 90 validators losing connectivity.
Prior to this incident, Solana had maintained an impressive operational streak, with its last full outage occurring in February 2024. However, this latest failure exposed vulnerabilities in the network's infrastructure, particularly as it highlighted the lack of slashing penalties for validators who go offline, which some argue could incentivize better redundancy measures.
In response to the incident, Marinade Finance, a staking platform, noted that the failure affected a significant portion of the network's stake, raising concerns about the robustness of Solana's validator distribution. The Solana Foundation Delegation Program had previously capped stake from any single autonomous system number (ASN) at 25% to mitigate such risks, but this cap was exceeded during the outage.
As Solana prepares for the upcoming Alpenglow protocol upgrade, which aims to enhance transaction finality, the recent routing failure serves as a reminder of the potential structural vulnerabilities that could impact the network's performance in the future.
FAQ
What caused the recent disruption in the Solana network?
The disruption was caused by a routing failure at the hosting provider Teraswitch, which led to approximately 28.83% of all staked SOL going offline.
What is the critical threshold for the Solana network regarding transaction finality?
The critical threshold for transaction finality on the Solana network is 33.34%. If this threshold is reached, the network cannot confirm transactions as permanent.
How long did the Solana network outage last?
The Solana network outage lasted for about 33 minutes before it recovered.
What measures were in place to prevent such outages in the Solana network?
The Solana Foundation Delegation Program had capped stake from any single autonomous system number (ASN) at 25% to mitigate risks, but this cap was exceeded during the outage.
What upcoming upgrade is Solana preparing for to improve its network?
Solana is preparing for the Alpenglow protocol upgrade, which aims to enhance transaction finality and address the vulnerabilities highlighted by the recent routing failure.