Solana patch aims to help alleviate ongoing network congestion issues

A new Solana patch update has been released, aiming to help alleviate congestion issues on the Solana network.

“The v1.17.31 release is now recommended for general use by MainnetBeta validators,” Solana’s status update account posted on X early Monday. “This release contains enhancements which will help alleviate the ongoing congestion on the Solana Network.”

The patch specifically includes improvements in how data packets are handled and optimized, changes to how certain nodes are classified based on their stake and updates to default settings in the system's local testing environment.

The v1.17.31 release represents the first round of mainnet congestion updates, with more to come. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko said it typically takes about 30 incremental updates, or patch releases, to develop and finalize a major software version.

Solana’s validator client team Anza confirmed further enhancements will then follow in v1.18. On Friday, Anza released proposed congestion fixes in v1.18.11 on devnet and asked testnet validators to implement and assist in analyzing its effectiveness.

The 1.18 update, targeted for this month, will make transaction scheduling more deterministic — aiming to streamline the processing and reduce bottlenecks.

Solana’s congestion issues

The Solana network has grappled with ongoing congestion issues in recent weeks, leading to noticeable delays in transaction processing and a large number of transactions being dropped, with developers rallying to develop solutions, including software patches and updates.

The congestion affecting the network is largely due to an influx of spam transactions, with bots attempting to prioritize their activities over those of regular users. This issue is exacerbated by a dramatic increase in transactions associated with newly released memecoins, creating an extraordinary demand for the network’s block space and impeding access for many users.

The issues may also have been impacted by a new development of Bitcoin-like mining that is taking place with Ore. This is causing a high number of transactions as miners submit their puzzle solutions to earn rewards. Yakovenko even suggested the project should be brought to the Solana testnet to help provide a greater stress test there too.