Starknet, an Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, recently faced a four-hour block outage caused by an error within the protocol. The outage occurred on April 4 and was due to a rounding error bug that resulted in block reorganization. This led to the transaction backlog reaching its full capacity. As a result, new transactions were temporarily unable to be processed and were rejected. Additionally, some transactions were reverted due to changing parameters such as timestamps. However, the backlog was eventually cleared, and normal network operation resumed. The protocol team is now working with relevant parties to prevent any further issues.
The outage had an impact on the price of Starknet, with its value dropping to $1.82 initially, but recovering to $1.91 at the time of publication. This incident adds to the series of challenges faced by Starknet, including delays following the adoption of Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade in early March. In January, the co-founder and CEO of StarkWare Industries, Uri Kolodny, stepped down from his role due to personal medical challenges. His position was taken over by Eli Ben-Sasson, the company’s president.
Despite these challenges, Starknet is still moving forward. The protocol plans to launch its cryptocurrency, $STRK, in April after a major airdrop of 728 million tokens in February. The protocol currently has a market cap of almost $1.38 billion and a fully diluted valuation of $18.9 billion. StarkWare Industries, founded in 2018, focuses on developing zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs to address scalability issues. Starknet aims to combine low costs, fast transactions, and massive scaling. Those who are eligible for the first round of STRK allocation have until June 20 to claim their tokens. Starknet will also provide a full analysis of the outage incident at a later date.