Solana is one of the rising projects of 2021. Valued under $10 at the beginning of 2021, it is currently $175 per token. It is 5th in the rankings with a market cap of $54 billion. However, the project is currently facing its fair share of problems. According to reports, SOL faced a DDoS attack over the past 24-hours. While the network registered clogging during the attack, it managed to remain online.
Solana and “Another One” DDoS
A distributed denial-of-service(DDoS) is a malicious attempt to disrupt network traffic. It is carried out by using several compromised systems as sources of attack traffic. In short, it creates unnecessary traffic for a network and prevents regular traffic from reaching its destination.
Blockasset, a Solana-based NFT platform reported,
“We are aware tokens are taking a long time to distribute. The Solana chain is overloaded with DDoS attacks which clogged the network causing delays.”
Additionally, this is not the first time Solana witnessed a DDoS attack. Back in September 2021, Solana’s network was offline for 17-hours due to mass botting activity for an initial DEX offering on Raydium(Solana supported DEX platform). At the time, SOL validators were preparing for a new code release. However, 400,000 transactions per second overwhelmed the network, causing the network to fork.
In addition to the recent issue, GenesysGo reports that validators are experiencing issues with processing transaction requests.
Moreover, the nature of the attack remains unclear as Solana foundation is yet to publicly confirm any issue. Overall, Solana had not faced any network outrage and it remains fully operations as of the press. However, DDoS is a major concern when it comes to the security of a blockchain. A Solana subreddit said,
“My biggest concern about Solana right now is the performance impact during high volume activity connected to Raydium IDOs and launches. Literally, every single performance issue in the past 6 months, including the 17-hour outage, has been a result of a launch on Raydium.”