Stellar hit by transaction issues, developers say 'network is still online' despite node outage

Cryptocurrency • April 6, 2021, 9:26AM EDT
UPDATED: April 6, 2021, 2:34PM EDT
The Block

UPDATE 2:10 PM ET: The Stellar Development Foundation said in a follow-up announcement that "[a]round 1:00 am PDT, the Stellar Development Foundation’s validator nodes temporarily stopped validating transactions on the Stellar network. The SDF's public Horizon API instance is also temporarily down. However, the Stellar network is still online."

SDF’s engineering team is working to determine the cause and to resolve the issue and bring SDF’s nodes back online as quickly as possible. In an effort to ensure continuity, SDF is also actively working with all Tier 1 validators on the network.

Public block explorers currently show transactions being processed on the network.

Since the original update, Stellar said that its Horizon API instance has been brought back online. 

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Developers for the Stellar blockchain network say that some of its nodes went offline on Tuesday, resulting in transaction disruptions. 

Multiple block explorers show that the most recent transaction took place some five hours ago. According to an incident report on Stellar's website, "[c]ertain validators dropped off the network." At 11:45 UTC, the incident page said that developers "continue investigating and testing a potential fix but we're unable to provide an ETA for a fix at this time."

"[Stellar Development Foundation] engineers are continuing to investigate this incident. At this moment we are unable to provide ETA for a fix," the foundation said in its most recent message at 13:26 UTC. 

Crypto exchange Bitstamp said earlier Tuesday that it has temporarily stopped deposits and withdrawals of XLM, Stellar's native token, in light of the issues. Other exchanges, including Bitfinex, also moved to pause related services.

"We've temporarily stopped $XLM deposits and withdrawals due to issues on the @StellarOrg network. We are monitoring the situation and will keep you updated," the exchange said in a Twitter post.

Editor's Note: This article and its headline have been updated.