Solana Network Deep Freeze Fixed and Quick Transactions Restored

The Solana blockchain has finally been restored after two attempts were made to fix an error that was recently recorded by the network.

The engineers are not sure what led to the disruption and for now, they are still monitoring the performance of the protocol. According to the monitoring site Solana Status, the deep freeze was fixed by 01:28 UTC, and almost 40 minutes after then, the issue was said to be finally resolved.

In the early hours of Saturday, the Solana network experienced a technical glitch that led to the delayed completion of transactions. Specifically, the blockchain was not processing the transactions as it would on other days.

What started as a slowdown in transaction speed later advanced to a complete shutdown of the Solana network. Transactions were no longer validated nor were their production on the chain’s block.

This meant a total suspension of crypto asset withdrawal for users pending when a solution is preferred. 

Initial Solutions Failed on Solana Network 

At first, a solution was initiated by validators on the Solana blockchain to fix the complication which at that time had not been discovered. This solution involved synchronizing a restart and forking the chain. The first restart proved to be abortive and ineffective. 

On a closer look, the validators discovered that they initiated the restart at the wrong point, and this in turn made the delay longer.

The ineffectiveness of the first attempt necessitated the need for a second solution. On a second attempt, 70% of the total stake had gone behind the move. Markedly, the Solana blockchain was just preparing to launch its upgrade shortly before this glitch occurred. 

Also, this is not the first time that the Solana network is experiencing such friction and downtime. Over time, the downtimes have been attributed to the network’s goal of maintaining high transaction throughput which consequently put more pressure on nodes to stay synchronized. Meanwhile, the glitch has not had any significant impact on the price of the Solana (SOL) token.

Similar outages like the one which happened on Saturday are part of the reasons why some Helium community members voted against the network in September 2022. Helium, layer 1 blockchain moved its ecosystem to the Solana network after receiving several votes from its community in favor of the Helium Improvement Proposal 70 (HIP 70) and others in disagreement.