Bitcoin L2 Stacks Faces 5-Hour Outage Halting Transactions: What Happened?
Bitcoin L2 Stacks, a layer-2 blockchain built on Bitcoin, recently experienced a significant outage lasting over five hours, disrupting transaction processing. The network abruptly stopped producing transaction blocks at 7:15 UTC on Jan. 6, leaving users unable to carry out transactions.
The project’s team swiftly acknowledged the issue on their social media platforms, revealing that the block production delay was connected to a signer. While developers are actively investigating the root cause, no definitive timeline for resolution has been provided as of yet.
### The Impact of the Outage
This outage comes on the heels of the Nakamoto upgrade, a major enhancement aimed at boosting transaction speeds and bolstering security within the network. By closely aligning Stacks blocks with Bitcoin’s finality, the upgrade leverages Bitcoin’s robust hash power to fortify transaction security. This strategic integration ensures that transactions on the Stacks network are now safeguarded by 100% of Bitcoin’s hash power.
Despite the interruption in block production, the network’s native token, Stacks (STX), has remained resilient. Data from CryptoSlate indicates that STX has surged over 4% in the past 24 hours, reaching $1.71. This positive trajectory follows a week-long rally of 15%, although the token has experienced broader declines exceeding 33% over the last month.
### Progress in sBTC Initiative
Coinciding with the outage, Stacks has made notable strides in its sBTC initiative, a Bitcoin-wrapper token designed to enhance DeFi functionalities on the network. The project recently announced that the total supply of sBTC has reached 1,000 tokens, equivalent to nearly $99 million. This milestone underscores the increasing adoption of Stacks in the decentralized finance landscape.
Efforts are underway to further expand the utilization of sBTC within DeFi applications on Stacks, with plans to accelerate this momentum in the upcoming weeks and months.
As the investigation into the outage continues, users and investors are eagerly awaiting updates from the project’s development team to resume seamless transaction processing on the Stacks network. Stay tuned for further developments on this evolving story.