Avalanche, a layer-1 network, has encountered a block production failure lasting nearly two hours, as reported on its status page.

The interruption, which affected the primary network, was observed through the Avascan browser, with the last transaction recorded at block 42046853 (19:13 UTC+8).

The Avalanche status page issued a statement indicating a “Block Finalization Stall,” with developers actively investigating the issue.

Notably, according to the update, the stall in block finalization on the primary network hinders the acceptance of new blocks, leading to operational disruptions.

Avalanche C-Chain Block Production Halts, Investigated by Community Developers

On February 23 at 12:02:27 pm UTC, Avalanche’s primary network experienced block production issues, leading to a seemingly halted network.

The last blocks on Avalanche’s P-chain, X-chain, and C-chain subnets were observed over an hour earlier, as shown on Avalanche’s blockchain explorer. 

An official alert related to the block finalization stall was issued by Avalanche, stating that developers across the community were investigating the issue preventing blocks from being accepted on the primary network.

In a status update, Avalanche wrote,

“Developers across the community are currently investigating a stall in block finalization that is preventing blocks from being accepted on the Primary Network.”

Block production is a crucial process for ensuring the stability and continuity of blockchain networks, as it involves validating and recording transactions within new blocks.

Interruptions in block production can result in delays in transaction processing, affecting the overall functionality of the network.

Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time Avalanche has faced block production halts. Similar incidents were reported on March 23, 2023, when the C-chain stopped producing blocks.

Sekniqi attributed the instability to a bug with version 1.9.12 and mentioned that the team deployed a fix to stabilize the network.

The Co-founder of Ava Labs Addresses the Avalanche Blockchain Outage

Clarification on this: the issue seems to be a gossip-related mempool management bug, which is purely a code-related bug, and not an issue with performance handling. Inscriptions seem to have hit the edge case, but inscriptions did not affect performance. https://t.co/9cvQSAmTVu

— Kevin Sekniqi (@kevinsekniqi) February 23, 2024

In a post on X, Kevin Sekniqi, the co-founder of Ava Labs, revealed that the team was actively investigating the issue. Sekniqi suggested that the halt in block production might be connected to a “new inscription wave” launched just before the problems surfaced.

This feature, reminiscent of NFT minting on the Bitcoin blockchain, has caused the block finalization stall, preventing new blocks from being accepted on Avalanche’s primary network.

He speculated that the issue could be an “esoteric bug from some edge case,” potentially related to a mempool handling issue with inscriptions. However, Sekniqi reassured the community that the team was working swiftly to address the problem.

Sekniqi provided further clarification approximately an hour later, stating that the issue was a code-related bug unrelated to performance handling. He explained that while inscriptions may have encountered an edge case, it did not impact performance.

The outage has prompted discussions within the crypto community, drawing comparisons to the recent Solana blockchain network outage.

Earlier this month, Solana experienced a significant downtime lasting nearly five hours, rendering the platform non-functional.

With both Avalanche and Solana encountering disruptions within a short timeframe, social media users are actively debating the reliability and scalability of emerging blockchain networks.

Meanwhile, as of writing, the Avalanche price slipped 3.08% and traded at $36.38, while its trading volume fell 16.83% to $422 million. Notably, the AVAX crypto has lost nearly 12% in the last seven days while noting monthly gains of 30%.

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