Ethereum Layer-2 Protocol Starknet Sheds Light On What Caused 4-Hour Block Outage

An error within Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Starknet caused a four-hour block outage on April 4, the protocol team revealed in an April 5 statement on X.

According to the statement, Starknet discovered a “rounding error bug that led to the reorg of blocks” causing the transaction backlog to hit full capacity.

Ethereum Layer-2 Protocol Back Up and Following Block Outage

“Consequently, there were a few minutes during which new transactions could not be accepted for processing and were therefore rejected,” the statement continued, revealing that “some transactions were reverted due to changing parameters (e.g. timestamps).”

gm!

Earlier today, we identified a rounding error bug that led to a reorg of blocks. Starknet’s block production continued as usual. However, the reorg caused the transaction backlog to reach full capacity. Consequently, there were a few minutes during which new transactions…

— Starknet (@Starknet) April 5, 2024

“The backlog was cleared and normal network operation resumed,” the protocol added. “We are in touch with relevant parties to ensure there are no further issues.”

Starknet’s Series Of Challenges

Data from CoinGecko shows that the outage caused the price of Starknet to drop to $1.82 by Thursday morning, though by the time of publication that had increased to $1.91.

Thursday’s four-hour outage marks the latest challenge for the Israel-based protocol, having experienced delays in early March following the adoption of Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade designed to reduce Layer-2 rollup fees.

In January, Starknet’s parent company, StarkWare Industries co-founder and CEO Uri Kolodny stepped down from his role, prompting the company’s president, Eli Ben-Sasson, to take over his role.

“Vicious medical challenges at home require my undivided attention,” Kolodny said in a statement at the time. “I took a LoA a year ago, but unfortunately that wasn’t nearly enough.”

Writing this is hard for me.

I am stepping down as @StarkWareLtd’s CEO. Vicious medical challenges at home require my undivided attention. I took a LoA a year ago, but unfortunately that wasn't nearly enough.

I will stay on as a board member of both StarkWare and the @starknet…

— Uri Kolodny (@ukolodny) January 11, 2024

Kolodny said he was confident that Ben-Sasson would “lead StarkWare forward with talent and devotion, to great heights.”

Massive Scalability, Lower Costs

Despite slight controversy, Starknet is set to formally unlock its cryptocurrency, $STRK, in April following a major 728 million airdrop in February, which saw over 220 million claimed within mere hours of its launch.

According to CoinGecko, the protocol has a market cap of nearly $1.38 billion and a fully diluted valuation of $18.9 billion, putting it on par with several heavy-hitters across layer-2.

Founded in 2018, StarkWare Industries develops zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs to address scalability.

According to Starknet’s site, the Ethereum layer-2 protocol seeks to pair low costs with fast transactions and massive scaling.

Those eligible for the first round of STRK allocation from February have until June 20 to claim their tokens, while a full analysis regarding Thursday’s outage incident will be unveiled by Starknet at a to-be-determined date.

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