Ethereum Layer-2 protocol Starknet experienced a block reorganization that caused transaction backlogs. Starknet’s block explorer Starkscan showed a four-hour disruption in block production. Starkscan indicated a gap between the creation of blocks numbered 630028 and 630029 on April 4th, while Starknet’s status page did not reflect any disruptions on the network that day.
Significant Error in Starknet Network
Starknet team later published a statement on platform X, revealing that a rounding error led to the reorganization of blocks. The company stated that block production continued as usual, but the reorganization caused a backlog of transactions that prevented the network from operating at full capacity, using the following words:
“As a result, there were a few minutes when new transactions could not be processed and were therefore rejected. Additionally, some transactions were reversed due to changing parameters.”
Starknet’s status page last reflected a major disruption on March 13th due to Ethereum‘s Dencun upgrade, which caused the network to experience slow block production. The disruption in the Starknet network was the latest in a series of processes for some of the largest blockchain networks in the ecosystem.
Solana, experienced a significant disruption at the beginning of February 2024. The interruption in block production on the main network halted the progress of blocks for over five hours. This incident was not the first disruption Solana has faced; since January 2022, Solana has experienced approximately half a dozen major outages and 15 partial or significant disruption days.
What Happened in the Solana Ecosystem?
Solana-focused software development firm Anza published a technical report on February 9th regarding the latest outage. The report revealed that Solana’s Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation cache, which compiles all programs before executing a transaction, encountered an error.
Austin Federa, Strategy Director of the Solana Foundation, commented on the issue, stating that there is an ongoing process to replace the old loader system with a new engine system, but it is planned to be disabled with an updated version:
“Apparently, someone intentionally called an old command set that had not been used for a long time but was still present in the codebase. The JIT compiler encountered problems when it couldn’t find what it was looking for. This is what created the infinite loop.”
Solana faced further issues at the beginning of April, with nearly 75% of all transactions on the network failing amidst a surge of activity brought on by the latest memecoin craze. Analysts suggest that these failed transactions were primarily due to bot activities attempting arbitrage operations on Solana.
