Solana rolls out update to tackle network congestion

Solana developers said a new software update to tackle the congestion problem on the popular blockchain is “now recommended” for general use by mainnet validators, as per an X post.

“The v1.17.31 release is now recommended for general use by MainnetBeta validators,” they said. “This release contains enhancements which will help alleviate the ongoing congestion on the Solana Network.”

Version 1.17.31 is the first in a series of planned updates to address network congestion in recent months, Rex St John, head of developer relations at Anza, which rolled out Monday’s update, said in an X post.

Validators are entities that run nodes or software that confirms transactions and secures any blockchain network. These entities need to continually upgrade their node to newer releases to deal with any issues that may arise when a network is running.

Congestion issues plagued the network in recent months amid a meme coin frenzy, causing a bump in user activity and significantly high demand for the network. Transactional volumes reached as much as $4 billion in March from the usual figures of under $500 million per day in 2023.

The high use of bots caused a spike in “failed” transactions on the network, Solana developer @0xMert_ previously explained on X.

A fail, in this context, meant a smart contract flagged certain transactions as a “bad request,” even as they were successfully submitted to the Solana network.

Broadly speaking, the final version prioritizes transactions from “good” validators, or those with a sizeable stake, to a node leader, where transactions are ultimately confirmed. Such a priority would allow validators with a higher stake to receive higher quality of service – preventing lower-quality validators from maliciously flooding the network with transactions.

Version 1.18 is currently being run on a testnet or a network that mimics the main blockchain to test for bugs and other issues.