Solana Price Drops Following Major Network Outage
The price of SOL has experienced a decline of over 3% after a significant outage occurred on the Solana network. According to CoinGecko data, the Solana price briefly dropped to $93.36 before recovering to its current level of $93.70, representing a 4.1% decrease in value for the day and an 11% decrease for the week.
Major Outage on Solana Network
The Solana network’s status page confirms a “major outage” on the mainnet-beta cluster. The notice states that engineers are currently investigating the issue, which was reported at 10:22 a.m. UTC.
New Validator Software Update Released
The Solana Status Twitter account announced that engineers have released a new validator software update, version v1.17.20, to address the issue that caused the cluster to halt.
Engineers from across the ecosystem are readying a new validator software release, which includes a patch to address an issue which caused the cluster to halt. Validator operators should prepare for an upgrade and restart of the network.
— Solana Status (@SolanaStatus) February 6, 2024
Addressing Network Outages with Firedancer
This isn’t the first time the Solana network has experienced an outage. In February 2023, it went down for nearly 20 hours. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko mentioned that the forthcoming Firedancer client would provide a long-term solution to address this issue.
Jump Crypto, the developer of the new validator client, aims to move Frankendancer to Solana mainnet by summer and have Firedancer on mainnet as an independent validator by the end of 2024.
Improving Network Resilience
Solana’s network outages have often been caused by software issues with its validators. The development of Firedancer is intended to create a backup software option for validators, making the network more resilient.
Recent Positive Developments
In spite of the network outage, there have been positive developments for Solana. Network activity surged last week, and token trading on Solana decentralized exchanges briefly surpassed that of Ethereum DEXs due to excitement surrounding the upcoming Jupiter airdrop.
Hot Take: Solana Faces Network Outage Challenges
The recent major outage on the Solana network highlights ongoing challenges in maintaining a stable and reliable infrastructure. While efforts are being made to address these issues with new software updates like Firedancer, it remains crucial for the network to find sustainable solutions to prevent future disruptions. Despite setbacks, Solana has demonstrated its potential with increased network activity and competitive token trading. As the ecosystem continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how Solana overcomes these obstacles and solidifies its position in the crypto market.