TON Network Faces Overload Due to TON-20 Transactions
Date: 2023-12-07 Author: Dima Zakharov Categories: BLOCKCHAIN
The TON network, similar to BRC-20 tokens, encountered a major issue when around 2 million transactions flooded the blockchain in a span of 30 minutes. This sudden spike caused the chain's usage to surge by an average of 61 times, leading to network congestion. Multiple prominent wallets had to suspend their operations to cope with the unprecedented load.
Developers of the network noted that the most significant periods of congestion occurred from 21:30 Moscow time on December 5th to 01:30 on December 6th and from 21:45 on December 6th onwards. Fortunately, smart contracts and user assets remained unaffected, and all sent messages will be processed.
According to data, the number of user transactions in the TON blockchain saw a substantial increase on the evening of December 5th. In less than 48 hours, over 3 million transactions were recorded. While the architecture and implementation of TON allow for rapid scalability, some network validation nodes were operating on inadequate hardware.
Bandwidth limitations may save costs but contradict developer recommendations. Some nodes had rented equipment suitable only for low loads. This was not an issue when the network operated at minimal levels in previous months, but as the parameter increased, these validators slowed down the entire chain.
Project founders revealed that TON has a "system of decentralized punishments for validators who perform poorly or incorrectly. However, at the moment, the penalties for violations are too lenient."
To comprehensively address this issue, developers plan to modify the system and increase penalty sizes. Implementing new mechanisms will require time. Responsible administrators who invest in proper equipment should not face negative consequences. Additionally, a patch has been released to enhance transaction processing on existing validators.
