Stay up to date with the chaos that unfolded on Cardano’s network and community over the weekend
Contents
- Stay informed of what happened
- Divided Community
Cardano (ADA) attracted attention in the cryptocurrency market due to its high market capitalization at the start of 2023. Moreover, as a competitor to Ethereum (ETH), it has seen significant growth from the total value locked (TVL) within decentralized finance (DeFi) and is also recognized as one of the most developed smart contract platforms.
However, this past weekend, some news caught Cardano investors off guard. It underwent a short and massive reboot at 60% of the altcoin’s nodes. This event caused concern among investors, as nodes are essential to the operation and security of a cryptocurrency network.
Stay informed of what happened
According to reports on Twitter, the failure occurred around block 8300568 and was confirmed by on-chain analysis tools. Although the network has since recovered and resumed normal operations, the incident has caused some concern among community members who fear it is a precursor to a larger issue that could compromise the integrity of the network. ADA blockchain.
A technical discussion has started on Github in order to identify the cause of the problem and to expedite the discovery of a solution. Additionally, staking pool operators are investigating the causes that may have led to the mass reboot.
One theory that has been put forward is that restarting some network nodes and their branches caused the Cardano network to be down for about seven minutes. Input Output Global (IOG), the company behind Cardano, said it doesn’t believe this is a complete network reset, but rather a form of degradation. Indeed, the blockchain itself did not stop, but some transactions experienced delays for a short time.
Divided Community
According to Charles Hoskinson, the event demonstrated the importance of self-correction in fully decentralized networks and highlighted the resilience of Cardano. Some members of the cryptocurrency community share this perspective and argue that the diversity and decentralization of nodes on the ADA blockchain contributed to the network’s ability to maintain operations during the event.
On the other hand, some members of the community disagree and argue that the diversity of nodes on the Cardano network is insufficient. As a result, not all nodes disconnected as some did not accept incoming connections. These discussions are taking place as the Cardano community awaits an official statement from IOG regarding the underlying cause of the problem within the blockchain.
The number of nodes present on a decentralized network can fluctuate over time and is influenced by various factors, including the popularity of the network, the degree of decentralization, and the incentives to operate a node.
Currently, Cardano still has room for improvement in terms of the number of nodes on its network. To increase its presence in this space, the altcoin needs to gain wider adoption and attract more individuals to participate in staking. Additionally, setting up a node for cryptocurrency requires a certain level of technical expertise, which limits the number of nodes.
It should also be noted that the smart contract platform needs to increase its liquidity in order to incentivize developers to create more nodes. Despite the availability of several types of nodes on the Cardano network, most of them belong to the same node, which limits its ability to scale and become more decentralized.