The Solana blockchain needs a fix
Solana’s development team plans to roll out a solution on April 15 to address what they call an “implementation bug” that has recently caused a spike in failed transactions on the Solana network. They are actively working on the issue and hope to get back to normal as soon as possible.
Is Solana’s error a design error? Mert Mumtaz explains the problem
“The issues Solana faces are not design flaws, but implementation errors,” stressed Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius Labs, a blockchain infrastructure specialist that provides dedicated backend support for the Solana network. Mumtaz’s statement highlights a key distinction that underscores their commitment to solving the problem.
Mert Mumtaz explained the issue in a tweet on April 8, speaking to his 108,000 followers. He stressed that “it is very important to distinguish between implementation errors and design errors.” He continued: “Implementation errors are usually minor and fixable, but design flaws are deeper and more serious.” His explanation aims to clarify the nature of the challenges Solana is currently facing and provide assurances that they are manageable.
Clarifying Solana’s Errors and Flaws
Mert Mumtaz’s insights
Solana’s Transaction Problems: Not a Systemic Flaw, Says Mert Mumtaz
Amid the recent surge in memecoin activity on the network, data showed a staggering 75% failure rate for non-voting transactions on Solana. This high rate has since dropped to 64.8%.
Mumtaz noted that the heart of the problem lies with Solana developers’ implementation of “QUIC,” a data transfer protocol developed by Google that is designed to keep all nodes updated on the current state of the network.
He stressed that this implementation error should not be mistaken for an overall design flaw, using the analogy of car design to make it clear that while a specific component may fail, it does not mean the entire car is poorly designed.
Mumtaz explained that while all cars have basic features such as four wheels and an engine, there are "many different implementations of car design," citing the different interpretations of the basic car concept from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, F1 and Tesla as examples.
Mert offered an analogy: If a particular model of BMW had bad steering, “we wouldn’t say all cars were defective. Rather, we would recognize that this specific model had an issue that needed to be addressed and fixed.”
Solana’s Dilemma
Likewise, Mumtaz noted that Solana’s current implementation of the QUIC protocol has several bugs and shortcomings that need to be addressed.
Mumtaz said the fix is scheduled to be implemented on April 15, assuming testing goes smoothly and no new issues arise. They plan to roll out a more advanced solution later.
The Solana network outage has alarmed the community, especially since the SOL token has a market cap of $79.9 billion, and according to DefiLlama, an additional $4.6 billion in value is currently locked on the network.