Solana suffered one of the worst outages in its history over the weekend. The network went down early on Saturday, November 25, and was only brought back online last evening. As such, the event has attracted the ire of the Solana community, many of whom believe this could be the end of the so-called “Ethereum-killer”. However, several fundamental factors indicate that Solana could overcome these circumstances and register a comeback in the coming days. Tag along as we tell you more about Solana’s recent downtime and why it could still achieve a strong finish in 2023.
What led to the deep freeze?
The Solana network suffered from sluggish transaction processing issues, which later spiralled into a complete shutdown of the chain's activity. According to validators and developers, the chain's block production had ceased, and transactions were neither processed nor validated. This left users unable to move their on-chain crypto assets, which are frozen in place until critical backend infrastructure comes back online.
The crisis lasted for almost two days, during which time validators and developers were trying to identify the problem's source. The leading theory behind the issue was a "fat block" that gunked up the blockchain's mechanics.
Restart attempts and forking
Validators and developers of Solana's infrastructure concluded that the best way to right the network would be to synchronise a restart and fork the chain. However, the first attempt to restart the chain failed as validators realised that they had picked the wrong point to restart, further delaying the process.
After working for hours, validators and developers attempted a second restart. They had gotten some 70 percent of the total stake behind the move, but the network needed an 80 percent supermajority to proceed. Therefore, after a few more last-minute adjustments, the restart was finally successful, and the Solana network resumed operations.
Impact of the deep freeze on Solana's credibility
The recent deep freeze has undoubtedly raised concerns about Solana's technical capabilities, and many are wondering whether it is the end of the "Ethereum-killer."
However, Solana's fundamentals and technical strengths remain intact, and the recent outage would not impact its long-term prospects. In a report published by Coinbase, the technical aspects of Solana were analysed, and it was found that the network portrays promising fundamentals and technical strengths in terms of transaction volumes, daily active users, and developer activity. These aspects put the protocol in a great position for a comeback.
The number of developers flocking to the network is quite high. Most of these developers opt to build on Solana due to its relatively cheaper transaction costs and faster processing speeds. Moreover, Solana's daily active users currently stand at an impressive 155k, just about 43 percent compared to Ethereum's 344k. On the daily transactions processed by the two networks, Solana takes an enormous lead at 17.7 million compared to Ethereum's 1 million.
The level of developer activity is at the centre of Coinbase's positive prediction for Solana, which signifies the developers' value in the network. According to GitHub data, Solana had 63 active developers as of the report's publication, compared to Ethereum's 133, with “active” meaning the number of developers who have committed code for 5+ days of the month. These numbers seem even more impressive when you consider the fact that, Solana’s market capitalization is only 4.3 percent of Ethereum’s.
Even AI has predicted gains for Solana in 2023
AI is the talk of the town these days. In the short while that these programs have been around, they have passed MBA, law and even medical license exams. On Feb 20, one such AI even predicted that Solana would touch $33.43 by mid-2023 and $39.22 by the end of the year. The latter is a 72 percent increase from current prices.
Conclusion
The recent outage experienced by the Solana network has been a setback for the self-proclaimed "Ethereum Killer." However, experts predict that Solana will bounce back due to its intact fundamentals, technical strengths, and rising developer activity. Additionally, the network boasts one of the highest throughputs in the sector with up to 65,000 transactions per second.
The recent outage is a reminder that even the most promising blockchain networks can face technical difficulties. However, Solana's swift response and transparent communication with its community show that the network is committed to resolving the issue and restoring service to its users.
Moreover, Solana’s native cryptocurrency, SOL, has nosedived more than 14 percent in the last 7 days. Most people would put this down to the outage, and they would be right to some extent. However, SOL isn’t the only token that’s down double-digits during this period. Most of Solana’s competitors, such as Polkadot, Avalanche, Tron, and Cosmos are also down more than 10 percent for the week.
Therefore, while the outage has played its part in SOL’s declining valuation, it hasn’t fared too badly when compared to its peers. And perhaps, when the market does rebound from its current lull, SOL could also post a significant recovery. However, cryptocurrencies are highly volatile. Therefore, always remember to do your own research and invest only as much as you can afford to lose.
(Edited by : Anushka Sharma)
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