Solana developers have unveiled a new update, version 1.17.31, for the mainnet beta in order to address the persistent network congestion on the Solana blockchain. After three days of rigorous testing, this update is now recommended for widespread use by mainnet beta validators. The patch includes several improvements that will assist in alleviating the network congestion, with further enhancements planned for version 1.18.
The current version focuses on enhancing network congestion and addressing issues with the sudden surge in open interest. Key upgrades include displaying staked versus non-staked packets sent down or throttled, utilizing smallvec to aggregate chunks and save one allocation per packet, implementing a BankingStage Forwarding Filter, tightening the minimal streams per 100ms for staked nodes, treating super low staked nodes as unstaked in streamer QOS, and setting the default staked client in LocalCluster.
Solana developer Anza has specifically requested that validators only upgrade to the latest patch if there is less than a 5% delinquent stake. In the Solana context, delinquency refers to inactive validators, and the percentage refers to the total stake held by offline validators. Thus, validators are advised to install the updates only when the network has less than 5% inactive validator stakes.
Amidst increased network activity and the frenzy surrounding memecoins, the Solana network has experienced congestion issues for nearly a week, resulting in a transaction failure rate as high as 75%. While developers have been working on resolving the issue, a Solana co-founder has stated that the ongoing network congestion problems are simply a bug rather than a fundamental network issue.
The Solana Foundation has identified several factors contributing to the current network congestion, including a high demand for Solana block space and delayed implementation of patches to address network-related issues. Austin Federa, the strategy lead at the Solana Foundation, revealed that developers have been tirelessly working to fix the problem, but the rapid growth of the network has outpaced their intervention. Federa added that the engineers have been working long hours to prepare patches and test features before deploying them on the mainnet.
Despite the challenges, Solana developers have developed a series of patches to tackle the ongoing network congestion issue, with the first patch released to developers on April 15.