First Solana Network Upgrade Rolled Out to Address Ongoing Congestion Issues

In response to the mounting congestion issues plaguing the Solana network in recent weeks, a major network update has been rolled out for validators early Monday.

Anza, the development team that emerged from Solana Labs earlier this year, made an overnight announcement unveiling the release of the v1.17.31 update for the Agave validator client.

This client, crucial for supporting the Solana network, aims to address the ongoing congestion issues that have hampered its usability.

While this update is not positioned as a definitive solution to the network’s recent troubles, it marks a significant initial step, with more fixes anticipated in subsequent updates, notably in v1.18.

Anza emphasized that this release includes enhancements designed to alleviate some of the persistent network congestion, with further improvements slated for future iterations, according to the Block.

The congestion on Solana’s network has hindered transaction processing and other fundamental operations, coinciding with increased trading activities involving meme coins and other tokens on the platform. Various factors contribute to these issues, including a protocol similar to Bitcoin mining within Solana’s framework and allegations of infrastructure firms exploiting vulnerabilities for advantages.

The Solana Foundation has acknowledged a bottleneck in the implementation of QUIC within the Agave validator client, a known issue that was scheduled for resolution in future updates but has now been expedited due to escalating network demands.

Anza conducted testing of the update in recent days, deploying a version to the Solana testnet on Friday and urging validators to upgrade promptly. Although no official timeline has been provided for the v1.18 upgrade, developers caution that it, too, will not offer an instant remedy to the network’s challenges.

According to Anza’s Rex St. John, early tests indicate that while the update improves fee collection by validators, its full impact remains uncertain until tested in real-world production environments.

Data from blockchain explorer Solana Beach reveals that one-third of all validators have adopted the v1.17.31 version of the validator client, while v1.17.28 remains the most prevalent, running on nearly 49% of all machines.