Sui network experienced a two-hour outage on Nov. 21 due to a bug in its congestion control system, causing validator crashes.
On November 21, the Sui blockchain, a burgeoning competitor in the layer-1 space, experienced its initial substantial network disruption, which resulted in a suspension of block production for more than two hours.
Validators malfunctioned due to an error in the network’s congestion control system, which resulted in the cessation of all transaction processing. The outage was caused by an edge-case flaw in the recently upgraded congestion control system, as per Sui Network.
All validators were compelled to enter a crash cycle as a result of a particular transaction type that had no execution cost. From 1:15 to 3:45 AM PT, the network was unavailable until the team and validators implemented a rapid code correction.
Although the outage was promptly resolved, it served as a critical stress test for Sui’s systems. In a post-mortem statement, the Sui team expressed its dedication to improving its testing protocols to simulate a broader range of potential adversarial transactions and to streamline build workflows for quicker response times in the future.
Sui Network Effect on Market Sentiment
The price of SUI, its native token, experienced a sharp 10% decline as a result of the outage. This token has experienced a significant appreciation in recent weeks, reaching a low of $3.35 at its lowest point.
Nevertheless, investor confidence appears to be surprisingly resilient, as the token rebounded to $3.63 shortly after the network resumed operations and is currently trading at $3.56, as per Coinmarketcap data.
SUI continues to be one of the most successful assets in the past month, with a 75% increase over the past 30 days, despite the setback.
Comparing Sui’s Outage to Solana’s History
Many investors have been alarmed by the incident, despite the fact that analysts believe Sui has the potential to challenge both Solana and Ethereum as a dominant platform for decentralized applications. Sui’s trajectory and Solana’s initial years have been compared by observers.
The challenges of scaling high-throughput blockchains, particularly those that employ novel consensus mechanisms, were underscored by these downtimes.
During its ascent, Solana encountered numerous network disruptions as a result of network congestion and bugs, the most notable of which was a 17-hour shutdown in 2020. Sui’s incident, despite its brief duration, has prompted comparisons to Solana’s growing pains.
Nevertheless, these disruptions did not impede Solana’s long-term growth; in fact, it experienced a more than 1,000% increase in value subsequent to its initial obstacles. In the same vein, optimists anticipate that Sui will leverage this disruption as a learning experience to fortify its technology and community support.
Sui, like Solana, is committed to advancing the limits of blockchain performance by utilizing advanced object-based architecture and parallel transaction processing. Nevertheless, the probability of edge-case failures is elevated by the intricacy of these systems.
Both networks emphasize a more general industry trend: the short-term sacrifice of reliability is frequently necessary to achieve high performance. Investor patience and technological advancements can ultimately surpass the consequences of initial errors, as demonstrated by Solana.