TON Blockchain Wags Back to Life After 7-Hour Outage: Here’s What Caused the Downtime
TON blockchain started producing blocks | Credit: Shubham Dhage
- TON network failed the DOGS stress test as the network faced downtime of over 7 hours.
- TON network clarified that the DOGS launch on the network increased on-chain activity beyond its threshold, leading to the crash.
- The TON network came online after 7 hours and has started producing blocks again.
After a grueling seven-hour outage, The Open Network (TON) blockchain has finally roared back to life, resuming block production and restoring functionality to the beleaguered network.
The prolonged downtime, which began late Tuesday, was initially attributed to an overwhelming surge in network load, sparking widespread disruptions and prompting major exchanges like Bybit and Binance to temporarily suspend TON deposits and withdrawals due to concerns over network instability.
Did TON Fail the DOGS Stress Test?
On Aug. 28, the TON network ceased block production at 06:11 UTC and remained down for several hours.
In the aftermath of the incident, speculation emerged on social media among on-chain analysts, suggesting that the highly anticipated DOGS memecoin launch may have been a contributing factor to the downtime.
The excitement surrounding the airdrop caused the network to become overwhelmed with transactions and cease operations.
A subsequent notification from TON revealed that the DOGS community’s on-chain activities had indeed pushed the network’s transaction rate to 150,000 transactions per minute on Aug. 28.
This surge was primarily driven by approximately 10 million traders concurrently executing transactions on the TON network, placing immense pressure on its processing capabilities.
As a result, the network struggled with transaction processing and eventually stopped.
Due to memory overload, many validators lost consensus with the network. TON then called upon all validators on the blockchain to restart their nodes.
TON Faces Network Issues Amid Telegram CEO’s Prison Woes
The TON network’s downtime comes within days of Pavel Durov, its original creator, being arrested in Paris on Aug. 24.
The French authorities have filed 12 criminal charges against Durov, mostly revolving around his role as Telegram CEO and the platform’s inability to ensure censorship.
Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai created TON in 2017 as a layer-1 blockchain.
After a successful initial coin offering, the second largest in history, TON was slated for a mega launch post-ICO; however, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission halted the project, deeming the ICO a breach of security laws.
In 2020, the Durov brothers withdrew from the TON project, following which community developers took over the project.
By May 2021, the developers launched the first main network, and a year later, the number of validators on the network increased significantly.
In 2024, the TON network has made significant progress regarding validators and on-chain activity.
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