On April 5, the Ethereum Layer 2 network StarkNet ceased producing new blocks for approximately four hours.
According to Starkscan, the pause occurred between blocks #630,028 and #630,029.
At the time of writing, the StarkNet status page did not mention the incident. The latest entries refer to March 13, when the blockchain slowed for 27 minutes due to the activation of the Dencun hard fork on the Ethereum mainnet.
Users and services noticed the transaction processing issues. For instance, the Baby Laika platform warned clients about withdrawal delays.
? STARKNET NETWORK INTERRUPTION ?
Due to a prolonged interruption in block creation on the Starknet network—exceeding two hours—we regret to inform you that the Withdraw feature will experience a delay. Rest assured, our team is actively working to resolve this issue. We… pic.twitter.com/Whnrbv1EGO
— Baby Laika (@BabyLaikaX) April 5, 2024
The StarkNet team confirmed the disruption several hours later, attributing it to a rounding error.
gm!
Earlier today, we identified a rounding error bug that led to a reorg of blocks. Starknet’s block production continued as usual. However, the reorg caused the transaction backlog to reach full capacity. Consequently, there were a few minutes during which new transactions…
— Starknet ?? (@Starknet) April 5, 2024
“Block production continued as usual. However, the reorganization caused the transaction backlog to reach full capacity. Consequently, there were a few minutes during which new operations could not be processed and were therefore rejected,” the statement said.
Developers promised to provide more detailed information later.
According to Starknet Monitor, the network’s block interval returned to its usual range of three to six minutes.
Back in March, the company behind StarkNet, StarkWare, unveiled plans to further enhance network performance, including the implementation of parallelization.