The Solana blockchain, known for its blazing-fast transaction speeds, has hit a snag recently.
A surge in user activity and high demand for the network led to persistent congestion issues, frustrating users and hindering its potential. Yet, Solana developers aren’t the ones to back down from a challenge.
They’ve rolled out the first weapon in their arsenal to combat congestion: version 1.17.31. This update is recommended for general use by mainnet validators, laying the groundwork for a smoother Solana experience.
It is just the first step. More updates are planned to ensure Solana lives up to its reputation for speedy transactions.
Addressing Network Congestion
Version 1.17.31 is the initial step in Solana’s efforts to tackle the network’s ongoing congestion problems. According to Solana Status, this release “contains enhancements which will help alleviate the ongoing congestion on the Solana Network.”
The congestion issues on Solana have been primarily driven by a meme coin frenzy, which has caused a significant spike in user activity and transactional volumes.
In March 2024, Solana’s daily transactional volumes reached as high as $4 billion, a substantial increase from the usual figures of under $500 million per day in 2023.
The high use of bots on the network has also contributed to congestion, leading to a spike in “failed” transactions. The Solana smart contracts flagged Certain transactions as “bad requests” even though they were successfully submitted to the network.
Prioritizing Transactions from “Good” Validators
The new update, version 1.17.31, addresses these congestion issues by prioritizing transactions from “good” validators, or those with a sizeable stake, to the node leader, where transactions are ultimately confirmed.
This approach is designed to prevent lower-quality validators from maliciously flooding the network with transactions, ensuring that higher-stake validators receive a higher quality of service.
Ongoing Development and Testing
The next upgrade, version 1.18, is being tested on a testnet or network resembling the main Solana blockchain. Although version 1.17.31 is the first step in Solana’s efforts to address the congestion issues, the developers are already working on it.
This continuous testing and development process is essential to guarantee the Solana network’s scalability and stability.
Conclusion
The network’s attempts to address the ongoing congestion difficulties have reached a critical milestone with the release of Solana version 1.17.31.
The upgrade aims to reduce the high demand and transaction volumes impacting Solana in recent months by prioritizing high-stakes validators’ transactions and introducing further improvements.
Maintaining the network’s performance and scalability will be essential to its longevity in the quickly shifting cryptocurrency market while the Solana team works on additional improvements.
