Telegram-Linked Toncoin Comes Back Online Following Major Six-Hour Outage

The Open Network (TON) blockchain is back online after undergoing problems that caused its network to halt producing new blocks for nearly six hours.

“TON is now producing blocks normally! We are back online,” the TON Foundation announced on its X account today.

TON is now producing blocks normally!

We are back online. https://t.co/iXM6kF464T pic.twitter.com/FQ6eOt9fok

— TON (@ton_blockchain) August 28, 2024

Data from the blockchain explorer Tonscan shows that the TON blockchain has resumed producing new blocks. As of press time, the last transactions on TON were approved six seconds ago in block 45350261.

A blockchain stopping block production for an extended period of time is worrying as it disrupts network stability, potentially leading to security risks and transaction delays. These outages are uncommon with blockchains but often occur during times of high network activity.

TON Outage Followed DOGS Memecoin Airdrop

The latest update from the TON team came roughly two hours after they confirmed “a disruption in block production to its network,” adding  in the X post that the issue had occurred “due to the abnormal load.”

“Several validators are unable to clean the database of old transactions, which has led to losing the consensus,” they said.

The TON-based community platform Tonk Inu pinned the blame on a frenzy of market hype over a recent airdrop of the DOGS memecoin. DOGS went live on Aug. 27 and is now already listed on leading crypto exchanges, including Binance and OKX. 

The token is part of the Ton Foundation’s way to raise awareness of what it considers to be the unfair arrest of Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov. DOGS has enjoyed a $1.7 billion in trading volume only 10 hours after its launch and hit a market cap of nearly $900 million.

Experts noted that the TON network struggled to fulfill demand after the launch of DOGS, with its transactions per second (TPS) falling short of what was expected.

In efforts to bring the network back online, TON’s development team, Ton Core, urged validators to restart their nodes and software with specified flags to reestablish consensus. The blockchain freeze had forced Binance and Bybit to pause deposits and withdrawals temporarily.

It’s worth mentioning that Solana was also struck by a major outage in February after the network failed to produce new blocks for approximately 5 hours, triggering a sharp drop in SOL’s price — though it rebounded.