• Solana suffered a major 5-hour outage on Feb 6 due to a BPF loader failure. Developers are rewriting BPF code and patching core software.
• Despite efforts to resume normal operations, uncertainties remain, with potential secondary effects anticipated, including a surge in DeFi activity.

After performing flawlessly for several months with 100% uptime, the Solana blockchain suffered a major outage on Tuesday, February 6, that spanned five hours. The developers, however, managed to resume the block production on Solana after that.

Some market players have managed to dig deep into what caused the outage. Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets at VanEck, attributed the outage to a failure in the BPF loader, or “Berkley Packet Filter,” which is responsible for deploying, upgrading, and executing programs on Solana. According to Sigel, the issue arose from a Solana Improvement Proposal (SMID) that introduced changes, including the addition of a blocker to prevent the use of metadata in the BPF.

This modification was part of upgrade 0093. Although a fix was developed after the bug was identified on the testnet, it had not yet been implemented pending further testing. There is speculation that a manual trigger triggered the bug, resulting in the network’s downtime.

Solana Developers Offer A Remedy

To remedy the issue, developers have rewritten the BPF code lines on the development network. This solution requires patching the core software utilized by all participants on the Solana network before normal operations can resume.

The next steps in restarting the network involve a community review of the patched core software. Validators will then generate a snapshot of the last verified block, followed by a consensus process to validate the block.

Once consensus is reached, validators can commence running the patched software. Initially, block production may occur without being added to the chain until 66% of the network agrees on the blocks. Network activity will fully resume once 80% of the network agrees on the last block. However, there is a possibility of further halts if the fix proves inadequate.

Sigel expresses optimism that efforts to resolve the issue are already in progress. Looking forward, Sigel highlights potential secondary effects resulting from the Solana network’s restart. He foresees a surge in decentralized finance (DeFi) activity as arbitrage bots seize opportunities that arose during the downtime.

Estimates indicate that this activity could generate up to $25 million in Maximum Extractable Value (MEV). However, Sigel cautions that the influx of MEV-related activity could potentially trigger further downtime, thereby hindering innovation on the Solana network. He suggests that future Solana Improvement Proposals (SMIDs) may face increased scrutiny and debate, citing ongoing discussions surrounding fee markets as an example of this evolving dynamic.

SOL Price Under Pressure

The immediate impact of the downtime came on the Solana (SOL) price with bears not allowing it to surge past $100 once again. However, the bulls and SOL investors have managed to arrest the downside considerably. At press time, the SOL price is up 1.5% trading at $95.37 with a market cap of $41.6 billion. Some market investors also expect the Solana price to hit $250 by the year-end.