Solana Releases Initial Fixes for Network Congestion

The first network update aimed at alleviating weeks of mounting congestion, which has rendered Solana notably challenging to navigate in recent times, was initiated for validators early Monday.

Anza, the development team that emerged from Solana Labs earlier this year, announced overnight the release of the v1.17.31 update for the Agave validator client—a crucial component operated by the computers supporting the Solana network.

This release introduces initial fixes to address the congestion issues, serving as an initial step rather than a comprehensive solution.

The update, according to Anza:

"… contains enhancements which will help alleviate some of the ongoing network congestion, and will be followed by further enhancements in v1.18."

Solana's network challenges, causing transaction bottlenecks and hindering basic functionalities, coincide with increased trading activities involving meme coins and other tokens on the network.

However, multiple factors may be contributing to these issues, including a Solana protocol resembling Bitcoin mining, and allegations of infrastructure firms exploiting a bug for unfair advantages.

According to Austin Federa, Head of Strategy at the Solana Foundation, the network's challenges stem from a "known bottleneck in the implementation of QUIC used on the Agave validator client," as tweeted last week.

While this issue was slated for future resolution, escalating network demand hastened the need for action.

Anza has been conducting tests on the update in recent days and rolled out a version to the Solana testnet last Friday, urging validators to "upgrade ASAP."

Although no official timeline has been announced for the v1.18 upgrade, developers caution that it will not offer a comprehensive solution.

Data from Solana Beach, a blockchain explorer, indicates that one-third of all validators have now transitioned to the v1.17.31 version of the validator client, with version 1.17.28 remaining the most widely used, operating on nearly 49% of all machines.