Bitcoin
Bitcoin Layer-2 Network Stacks Outage for 9 Hours – What Happened?
Stacksa scalable layer 2 network for Bitcoinsuffered significant disruption on Friday as block production stopped for almost nine hours.
The incident, attributed to a Bitcoin reorg and “unexpected miner behavior,” sent shockwaves through the Stacks ecosystem and triggered a 12% drop in the STX Token Price in the last 24 hours.
Stacks was built to enable features like smart contracts to power decentralized applications (dapps) It is NFTs on the Bitcoin network, as the blockchain itself was not designed for the features that have flourished on rival networks over the years.
The network is designed to leverage the security and immutability of Bitcoin, providing a secure platform for developers to build scalable blockchain applications while still being rooted in Bitcoin.
The problem started earlier today when the Stacks network encountered a delay in block production. The Stacks Status Twitter account (also known as X), the official channel for network updates, assigned the problem to a combination of factors.
“We are experiencing a delay in Stacks block production due to unexpected mining behavior combined with a Bitcoin reorganization,” the tweet stated. “Key developers in the ecosystem are investigating the issue and working to resolve it as quickly as possible.”
The Bitcoin blockchain occasionally undergoes reorganizations, where previously confirmed blocks are invalidated. While uncommon, these events can disrupt applications and scale networks built on top of Bitcoin, like Stacks.
In this case, supporters of the Stacks network say the Bitcoin reorganization is part of the reason the network was down for about nine hours. Developers also continue to monitor miner activity to avoid similar outages in the future.
“Unexpected miner behavior” may refer to miners not updating their software or coordinating effectively in response to a Bitcoin reorganization, causing delays in block production and resulting in technical or operational issues among miners.
The nine-hour block production halt impacted trading of the STX token. The token’s price has plummeted 12% on the day to a current price of $1.90, reflecting investor concerns about the network’s stability.
While the outage highlights the potential vulnerabilities of blockchain networks built on top of Bitcoin, the Stacks team says it is committed to improving the network’s resilience.
Stacks co-creator Muneeb Ali pointed highlights that Nakamoto’s next update, which focuses on a new consensus mechanism, is designed to eliminate the possibility of forks and mitigate the impact of Bitcoin reorganizations.
The Nakamoto update was previously expected to go live in late spring, but it was late at the last minute due to potential issues that were considered too serious to be resolved in a later update. It is now scheduled to be released in August.
Decrypt reached out to Ali for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Edited by Andrew Hayward