Recently, the Solana network's transaction congestion problem has become a hot topic in the cryptocurrency community. Many users are facing transaction failures or delays, which has attracted widespread attention. This article aims to deeply analyze the causes of Solana network congestion and explore possible solutions.

Fundamentals of Transaction Processing

First of all, from the most basic level, when users conduct transactions on the Solana network, they may encounter three situations: one is that the transaction is successfully executed without any errors; the second is that the execution fails, that is, although the Gas is paid, it fails due to various conditions not being met (such as the purchased Mint has been sold out, or the price fluctuation causes too much slippage); the third is that the transaction is discarded, that is, the transaction fails to reach the block leader node. This is the most common problem for current users and is a network-level problem, not a consensus or execution problem.

The core problem of congestion

Further analysis shows that the main cause of transaction congestion is discarded transactions, that is, transactions that failed to reach the block leader node due to network layer problems. Solana recently upgraded to the QUIC protocol as its network layer, aiming to improve the connection between users and block leaders. However, due to Solana's continuous block production mechanism and lack of memory pool, once the connection is lost, the transaction cannot be recorded in the block.

The QUIC protocol allows block leaders to cut off or throttle certain user connections based on specific criteria, thereby dropping certain connections during periods of high demand. While this new architecture prevents Solana from experiencing downtime when network activity increases, it results in a deteriorating user experience under high load.

The root of the problem

The analysis shows that, despite the good intentions of QUIC, the logic of limiting connections by block leaders is poorly implemented and flawed. The current problem is that connections appear to be dropped randomly, rather than based on set criteria (such as dropping all connections below a certain fee standard). This leads to a situation where, in order to successfully complete a transaction, a user or bot must send more spam than others, making it more difficult for ordinary users to successfully trade.

Solutions and future prospects

In the face of this challenge, the Solana team and community are actively working to resolve issues at the network layer. Teams like @jump_firedancer, @Anza_xyz, and @solana are working hard to roll out fixes, some of which have already been implemented, and more important updates are expected to be released in the coming weeks.

However, even if these issues are resolved, Solana still has a long road ahead. It is unclear whether the current fixes will be effective in preventing the next congestion problem; @Jump_'s Firedancer is expected to solve these problems, but it is not expected to be launched until the end of the year; in addition, the problem of network spam still exists, and the transaction economic mechanism on Solana has failed to prevent spam attacks by bad actors.

in conclusion

Although the Solana network has recently encountered serious congestion issues, this does not mean that its future is bleak. Just as Ethereum has risen from its challenges, Solana is also expected to overcome its current difficulties and continue its development goals of an efficient, secure, and scalable blockchain platform. Through the joint efforts of the community and continuous technological innovation, Solana's tomorrow is still worth looking forward to.