What is causing the major congestion on Solana? How will the upgrade address it?
In recent weeks, the Solana network has been experiencing severe congestion, resulting in slow transaction processing and frequent cases of failed transactions. The total transaction volume on Solana in March skyrocketed to $4 billion, far surpassing the average daily volume of less than $500 million in 2023.
There are two main reasons for the network congestion. First, the surge in trading volume of meme coins has led to an overwhelming network load. Second, the popularity of the Ore mining project has significantly increased transaction volume as miners strive to earn rewards.
To address this, the Solana team released the mainnet Beta version update v1.17.31 on April 12th. After three days of testing, this version is now recommended for all mainnet validators. The update enhances the efficiency of data packet processing and optimizes node categorization mechanisms, aiming to alleviate the network congestion.
What are Solana’s future upgrade plans?
The version upgrade “v1.17.31” is just the first step in resolving Solana’s congestion issues, and further improvements and optimizations will be made in the subsequent v1.18 version. Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, stated on X, “Typically, it takes about 30 updates or patches to confirm the final version.”
Solana developer @0xMert_ also addressed the congestion issues faced by the Solana network on X. He pointed out that the high usage of bots has led to a sharp increase in “failed” transactions on the network. These “failed” transactions refer to those that have been successfully submitted to the Solana network but are ultimately deemed “invalid requests” due to the rules of smart contracts.
Therefore, the final upgraded version of the Solana network will prioritize transactions initiated by “trusted” validators who have a larger stake in the node leader position, where transactions are confirmed. This “priority arrangement” allows high-quality validators to receive better service and prevents low-quality validators from maliciously flooding the network.
According to Austin Federa, the head of strategy at the Solana Foundation, the development team is currently testing the “v1.18” version online to further improve network efficiency and alleviate congestion. He emphasized that developers are working hard to ensure the stability and efficient execution of the new version.
References: Cointelegraph, Coindesk, The Block
Proofread/Edit: Gao Jingyuan