Avalanche, the decentralized application (DApp) platform, recently encountered a serious technical glitch, affecting its proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain’s block production. Ava Labs co-founder Kevin Sekniqi has suggested that the problem might be associated with a newly introduced inscription wave.
The interruption in Avalanche’s main network block creation happened on 23rd February at 12:02:27 pm UTC. The blockchain explorer of Avalanche showed that the final block on its P-Chain, X-Chain, and C-Chain networks had been recorded over an hour before. Subsequently, the organization issued an official warning regarding the halt in block finalization, and an investigation is currently undergoing.
Block creation is of fundamental importance for the seamless operation and permanency of blockchain networks. It is instrumental in launching new blocks that document and validate transactions. Interruptions in this process lead to transaction processing delays, hampering the network’s overall functionality.
Kevin Sekniqi, in a post, announced that a dedicated team is probing the issue. According to him, the disruption in block production could be connected with a new inscription wave rolled out just an hour prior to the problem’s occurrence.
Sekniqi suspects the issue could be a rare bug linked to a unique situation and probably involves a mempool handling issue with inscriptions. Despite the technical glitch, he assured the community that the problem will be addressed promptly.
Later Sekniqi, while providing a clarification, shared that the glitch was related to a code and not performance handling, affirming that inscriptions might have hit the edge case but didn’t impact performance. This isn’t the first instance Avalanche confronted block production disruption; a similar interruption happened on March 23rd, 2023. Sekniqi had then clarified that the network was unstable due to a bug with its v1.9.12, and a solution was rolled out to stabilize the network.