Stacks (STX) Layer 2 Network on Bitcoin Recovers From 4-Hour Outage, Price Remains Stable

Crypto blockchains are known to face network issues from time to time. Today, Stacks, one of the fastest-growing layer 2 networks on Bitcoin, experienced a four-hour outage.

The company attributed the delay in block production to a drop in signer participation, which forced users to wait out the setback. The company announced the incident around 7:15 AM UTC through their official X handle at Stacks Status.

Layer 2 networks like Stacks are gaining popularity in the crypto space as they offer additional functionalities that OG networks like Ethereum and Bitcoin do not. Take Ethereum, for example. The blockchain platform founded by Vitalik Buterin had some hurdles to overcome.

Firstly, the blockchain required ETH users to pay astronomically high gas fees, and transactions were often slow. The Ethereum foundation team has since launched ETH 2.0 and shifted the blockchain from operating as a Proof-of-Work chain to Proof-of-Stake.

However, even with the upgrades on Ethereum, the chain faced issues in its early days. This problem led to the development of layer 2 networks. Layer 2 networks like Optimism and Arbitrum allow users to process ETH transactions faster but at lower gas fees.

Recent technical issues following Nakamoto UpgradeWhile there were layer 2 networks, developers were not launching many of them for the Bitcoin blockchain. The earliest layer 2 for BTC was the lightning network. Stacks emerged as a layer 2 network that leverages the security of the Bitcoin blockchain to give users access to Web3. The company aims to allow users to activate the Bitcoin economy.

The team created Stacks for people to use Bitcoin as a secure base layer to use Web3 apps or build them. A recent hiccup in the Stacks network operation left many of the platform’s users at a standstill. This technical glitch occurred just three months after the project launched the Nakamoto Upgrade. The upgrade was designed to increase transaction speeds on the chain and improve security.

However, it seems the network is yet to fully match the network load. The team was able to respond promptly and keep the public updated as they sought to fix the lagging problem. Stacks highlighted that the problem was due to a temporary drop in signer participation.

According to the company, the drop affected the threshold needed for optimal signing. Stacks wasted no time deploying their core developers to work with the signers to restore them.

Quick resolution and system recoveryWithin two hours, the Stacks chain was producing blocks again. As block production resumed, the project quickly pointed out that while more signers are being restored, minor intermittent activities may occur for the next hour.

Coincidentally, the network issue occurred just 24 hours after the team announced that sBTC, its bitcoin-wrapped token’s total supply, had just hit 1000. Not to mention, this is valued at nearly $99 million. In the meantime, the Stacks (STX) price remains unaffected, and the network problem has been contained. The team urges users to continue their normal activities as stacks continue to work as expected.