Just as of recently Solana which is known to many through its great speed and scalable blockchain technology recently came across something unusual. The Solana network faced a lot of network congestion. What this led to has been concerning for the company. This network congestion caused 75% of on-chain transactions to fail
This issue has caused a lot of discussions and also got some users migrating to Ethereum instead. The reason for this migration seems to be for more reliable transaction experiences. Austin Federa, the Head of Strategy at the Solana Foundation, provided insights into the root causes of these challenges and the measures being taken to resolve them.
Unpacking the congestion
Austin Federa praised the hard work of developers from teams like Anza, Firedancer, and Jito, who have been working non-stop to deal with a huge increase in network use. Although people have different ideas about why the network is so busy, Federa explained that the main problem is that the current software can’t handle all the extra traffic well. The issue according to Austin Federa is called ‘’tech debt’’. This shows a really difficult decision for Solana. The issue is that they can either add new features or improve the existing network.
To deal with the network problems and slow-downs, the main developers are quickly making and checking changes to improve the network system. They’re working to make the network better at handling a lot of traffic without issues. Because of these problems, a lot of transactions have been failing—more than 75% recently. This has made people worry about whether the network can handle a lot of activity without problems.
The Ripple Effect on Users and the Market
The network issues haven’t just caused more transactions to fail but have also changed how Solana and Ethereum compete in the market. As Ethereum’s value went up in March, Solana’s ongoing problems might make it fall further behind, affecting its market standing. People using Phantom wallet, which is popular with Solana users, have seen longer wait times for transactions and more failures. This is mostly because of a lot more activity on the network, especially from meme coins and liquid staking on Solana’s decentralized trading platforms (DEXes).
Matt Sorg from the Solana Foundation addressed worries about the many failed transactions, saying they’re actually part of a feature meant to keep users safe. He mentioned that these failures mostly happen because the price moves too much, or “slips,” especially with Solana’s meme coins on different trading platforms. The main issue, Sorg pointed out, is with transactions that get dropped and don’t make it into the final record for several reasons
