Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko announced plans to enhance network reliability after a significant outage on February 25. The downtime lasted nearly 20 hours, marking the first major disruption this year but continuing a trend of instability observed in 2022 with 11 major outages.
Root Cause of the Outage
The February outage was linked to the 1.14 network update, designed to improve speed and scalability. Yakovenko explained:
“Prior to the 1.14 release, engineers addressed live issues affecting network performance, such as invalid gas metering, lack of transaction flow control, and inefficient fee markets. However, the update unexpectedly caused network degradation.”
The exact cause remains under investigation.
Planned Improvements
Solana’s team outlined key upgrades to prevent future disruptions:
Enhanced Software Release Process
- Engage external developers and auditors to identify bugs before deployment.
- Establish an adversarial team to stress-test validator code.
Optimized Restart Procedures
- Simplify network recovery by auto-synchronizing nodes to the latest confirmed slot.
Ongoing Stability Initiatives
- Development of a second validator client.
- Upgraded communication protocols (e.g., QUIC).
- Improved RPC infrastructure.
Solana’s Long-Term Stability Efforts
Over the past year, Solana has prioritized network resilience through:
- Better debugging tools.
- Decentralized validator diversity.
- Protocol optimizations to reduce congestion.
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FAQ
Q: How long did the February 2023 Solana outage last?
A: Nearly 20 hours, the longest disruption since 2022.
Q: What caused the outage?
A: The 1.14 network update triggered unexplained degradation; investigations are ongoing.
Q: What changes is Solana making to improve reliability?
A: Stricter release testing, adversarial teams, and streamlined restart protocols.