Is Solana Decentralized? Outages, VC Ties and More Worries
Most financial transactions occur based on a centralized model, where a third party has the authority to manage any issues. However, having one party in charge is a double-edged sword, because if that intermediary is compromised, then all client transactions can be impacted. Cryptocurrencies promise to decentralize control of a network so that there’s not one single point of failure. Does this mean that decentralized crypto is immune? And what qualifies as decentralized?
On June 1 2022, the Solana network suffered another outage — the 12th this year. The blackout shut down the network for four hours and ten minutes, and stopped a potential 975 million transactions from occurring. In a tweet, Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana Labs co-founder, explained the downtime: “As a result of the long nonce instruction, part of the network considered the block invalid, and no consensus could be reached.”Stability issues on the Solana network caused its value to dip this year, and raised serious questions about the network’s decentralization.
This article examines the issues surrounding the Solana blockchain, and the ways in which its decentralization (or lack thereof) affects the network’s performance.
What Is Blockchain Decentralization?
Blockchain decentralization is a governance system wherein decision-making rights are dispersed across the charge of shareholders or token holders in the majority. It’s designed to keep the network impartial, secure and accessible.