Fast-rising blockchain and presumed Ethereum killer, Solana, was down in the wee hours of today after suffering another DDoS attack. But as of this writing, the blockchain is functioning correctly again. It is the third time that the network has experienced various attacks in recent months.
Is Solana Being Targeted?
Famous Asia-based crypto journalist, Collins Wu, revealed via Twitter that Solana was down earlier this morning. The initial prognosis of the attack showed that the hacker seemingly carried out the act using spam links. Wu revealed that it took more than three hours before the network got back in order. A DDoS attack starts with multiple requests to a victim’s website, and if the victim accedes to such requests, the network becomes overwhelmed and starts malfunctioning.
It was fixed after 7 o'clock (UTC+8) and returned to normal.
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) January 4, 2022
While Wu claimed the Solana network was down, some others argue that operations only slowed down considerably. Nevertheless, despite Wu’s tweet and the spread of the news, the Solana foundation hasn’t yet confirmed or denied the story.
A cryptocurrency subreddit (r/cryptocurrency) confirmed Wu’s assertions with some members of that subreddit claiming that Solana’s susceptibility to attacks isn’t a good sign for top traders. Another subreddit member wrote: “it is plain dishonesty to keep blaming attackers for these incidents. A properly-developed blockchain should keep mining blocks based on the network’s parameters. It shouldn’t use spammed transactions as an excuse not to keep working.”
Solana’s Incessant Attacks
Three months ago, Solana’s status confirmed a DDoS attack on the network in which the network suffered instability for nearly an hour. That incident was a little embarrassing, as it occurred when the network’s validators were planning to issue a new release. The outage, which lasted for more than sixteen hours, was eventually blamed on the IDO activities of a Solana-built decentralized exchange, Raydium.
The network has suffered another attack even though it wasn’t offline throughout the episode. Even though users’ funds remained intact until the network started functioning at full capacity, the Solana team and developers were hugely criticized for restoring the network because of the incident. Even though the operational lag was glaring, the network’s co-founder denied an attack on the network.
Last month, grayscale issued a security report in which it remarked that Solana is using a unique blockchain technology that may not function as expected yet. The report further noted that the network’s basic cryptography might be flawed. Thus, making the network susceptible to hacks or making the network’s features lag. However, an official statement from Solana-built NFT game, Solchicks, clarified that its chicks NFT caused the operational lag on the blockchain.
The Solution
Even though Solana’s developers have understated the importance of these attacks, the Solana ecosystem suggests that the Solana devs work on fixing issues with the building blocks of the network. While the network surged in popularity and growth last year, including a sharp spike in sol price, an attack at the beginning of the year proves more work for its developers, especially securing the network.
The network’s native token (sol) set a new peak price of $265 two months ago. But it’s 40% down from that peak price and now trades at $170, having lost 4% in the last 24 hours.
