Solana's co-founder, Anatoly Yakovenko, has announced a series of proposed upgrades aimed at enhancing the network’s reliability following a significant outage in late February. The incident, which lasted nearly 20 hours, was attributed to an unstable software update, specifically version 1.14. This article explores the causes, proposed solutions, and future plans to strengthen Solana’s infrastructure.
Understanding the Recent Solana Network Outage
On February 25, the Solana blockchain experienced a major disruption, halting block production for approximately 20 hours. This was the first major outage of the year, but it recalled previous reliability challenges—the network encountered 14 outages of varying severity throughout 2022.
According to Yakovenko, the outage was linked to the rollout of the 1.14 update, which was designed to enhance network speed and scalability. He explained that prior to this release, engineers were addressing live performance issues, such as:
- Invalid gas metering.
- Lack of transaction flow control.
- Absence of efficient fee markets.
- High resource consumption (RAM, storage, and restart overhead).
Despite these efforts, the 1.14 upgrade led to unexpected network degradation. The exact root cause remains under investigation.
Planned Improvements for Enhanced Reliability
In response, Solana's core team is prioritizing network stability through a refined software release process. Key initiatives include:
- Engaging external developers and auditors to identify bugs and potential exploits before deployment.
- Forming an adversarial team to build additional testing hooks and instrumentation into validator code.
- Developing more efficient network restart procedures to minimize downtime during future incidents.
Yakovenko emphasized the importance of automation in recovery processes, suggesting that nodes should auto-discover the latest confirmed slot and share missing ledger data seamlessly.
These steps build on ongoing efforts over the past year to bolster Solana’s infrastructure, such as:
- Developing a second validator client for diversity.
- Enhancing developer tooling.
- Upgrading the network communication protocol to QUIC.
- Improving RPC infrastructure for better performance.
👉 Explore more strategies for blockchain network improvements
Frequently Asked Questions
What caused the recent Solana outage?
The outage was triggered by the 1.14 network update, which introduced instability despite being intended for performance improvements. The exact technical cause is still being investigated.
How long did the Solana network remain down?
The disruption lasted nearly 20 hours, making it one of the longer outages in recent months. Validators worked to restart the network and restore functionality.
What is Solana doing to prevent future outages?
Proposed measures include stricter testing protocols, external audits, automated recovery systems, and the formation of dedicated teams to simulate adversarial scenarios and strengthen network resilience.
Has Solana had outages before?
Yes, the network experienced multiple outages in 2022, though this was the first major incident in 2023. The team has been actively working on stability enhancements throughout the past year.
What are QUIC and RPC improvements?
QUIC is a modern communication protocol designed to reduce network congestion and improve reliability. RPC (Remote Procedure Call) upgrades aim to enhance how applications interact with the blockchain, leading to better user experience and efficiency.
How will these changes affect users and developers?
The planned upgrades are expected to result in a more stable and predictable network, reducing downtime risks and improving overall performance for decentralized applications and users conducting transactions.