Solana, a Layer 1 blockchain, released a software update on Monday (15th) to address its network congestion issues. “Solana Status,” the X account dedicated to publishing updates on the Solana network, announced the release of this upgrade.
Rex St. John, the developer relations lead for Anza, the team responsible for the upgrade, stated on the X platform that version 1.17.31 is the first in a series of updates planned over the past few months to address network congestion issues. Version 1.18 is currently being tested online to identify any vulnerabilities and other issues.
In recent months, the Solana blockchain has experienced a surge in activity due to the meme coin craze, resulting in a significant increase in network demand and subsequent congestion. The typical daily trading volume in 2023 was less than $500 million, but by March of this year, it reached as high as $4 billion.
Solana developer @0xMert_ explained on the X platform that the extensive use of bots has led to a surge in “failed” transactions on the network. In this context, “failed” transactions refer to smart contracts marking certain transactions as “invalid requests,” even though these transactions have been successfully submitted to the Solana network.
Overall, the final version will prioritize transactions from “good” validators, meaning those with a significant staking amount, and the transactions will be confirmed by leader nodes. This mechanism allows validators with higher staking amounts to receive higher-quality service and prevents low-quality validators from maliciously flooding the network with transactions.
Related article: “Solana Team Actively Developing Solutions to Address Massive Transaction Losses Due to Network Congestion”
