Crypto and blockchain technology have drawn inspiration from the big-tech dominated Web2 era, inheriting traits such as occasional downtime.
On October 4, 2021, Facebook experienced a seven-hour outage — a duration that coincidentally matched the downtime of the Telegram-associated blockchain TON.
TON’s outage was reportedly triggered by a memecoin airdrop called DOGS, featuring a canine mascot allegedly created by Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram who is currently under arrest.
The October 2021 Facebook outage was one of the most prominent in its history, affecting not only Facebook but also its sister platforms WhatsApp and Instagram, leaving Web2’s flagship apps inaccessible to users worldwide.
During the outage, developers and other professionals were unable to access essential tools and communication platforms. Some employees were even unable to enter company premises or conference rooms due to the authentication systems being offline.
Read more: Solana price is getting better at shaking off major outages
Despite efforts to decentralize its operations, Facebook found itself disconnected from the internet due to a single bug, highlighting the vulnerability of centralized systems.
Major tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook have built their own internal networks, allowing them to remain online without depending on external providers. These companies also distribute their data centers globally to ensure redundancy and mitigate the risk of data loss during natural disasters.
Although Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram were technically still operational during the outage, the internet was unable to route traffic to these platforms.
The root cause of the Facebook outage was identified as a configuration error in the Border Gateway Protocol v4, a crucial component of internet routing infrastructure.
The recent outage of TON may have experienced a similar technical issue, but without a detailed analysis, the exact cause remains unknown.
The DOGS airdrop led to a surge in on-chain activity, causing validators to lose consensus and resulting in the network’s inability to process transactions efficiently.
When the airdrop was activated, the network experienced a peak of 280 transactions per second, far below the advertised capacity of TON, leading to the network’s disruption.
The flatlining orange area shows when the TON outage occurred (Source)
Prior incidents, such as the December event caused by spam transactions, have highlighted the network’s limitations in handling high transaction volumes.
Validators coordinated to restart the chain following the outage, a strategy similar to Solana’s approach to resolving technical issues.
It remains uncertain whether centralization played a role in the TON outage, emphasizing the importance of diverse validator clients to enhance network resilience.
“The short answer is ‘tech is subpar and could be improved,'” stated Mikko Ohtamaa, an early Bitcoin developer and cofounder of Trading Strategy. He emphasized the need for transparency in security audits to address underlying issues.
Decentralization in blockchain technology exists on a spectrum, with some networks demonstrating greater resilience to downtime than others. The market’s response to outages indicates a level of trust in development teams’ ability to address technical challenges.
In the Web3 space, decentralization primarily focuses on preventing single points of control rather than absolute immunity to downtime.
Perhaps in the era of Web4, advancements in technology will offer more robust solutions to mitigate downtime and enhance network reliability.
A modified version of this article first appeared in the daily Empire newsletter. Subscribe here so you don’t miss tomorrow’s edition.