Stacks, a layer-2 blockchain built on Bitcoin, recently experienced a major outage that lasted for over four hours. The network stopped producing transaction blocks at 7:15 UTC on Jan. 6, leading to a halt in transaction processing. This issue was confirmed by the project’s team on their social media platform, attributing the delay in block production to a signer. While developers are working on resolving the issue, a timeline for the resolution has not been provided yet.
This outage comes shortly after the Nakamoto upgrade, which aimed to enhance transaction speeds and security on the Stacks blockchain. The upgrade aligns Stacks blocks closely with Bitcoin’s finality, utilizing the robust hash power of Bitcoin to secure transactions. By tying Stacks to Bitcoin’s blockchain, the network benefits from the reliability and resistance to reorganization that Bitcoin offers.
Despite the outage, the Stacks (STX) token remains unaffected. STX has seen a 4% increase in the past 24 hours, reaching $1.71. Over the past week, the token has rallied by 15%, although it has experienced broader declines of over 33% in the last month.
In addition to the outage, Stacks has reached a significant milestone with its sBTC initiative, a Bitcoin-wrapper token. The total supply of sBTC recently reached 1,000 tokens, equivalent to nearly $99 million, highlighting the growing adoption of Stacks in decentralized finance (DeFi). Efforts are underway to further scale this momentum in the coming weeks and months.
Overall, despite the temporary setback caused by the outage, Stacks continues to make progress in enhancing its blockchain ecosystem and expanding its presence in the DeFi space. The project’s integration with Bitcoin’s hash power and the success of initiatives like sBTC demonstrate its commitment to innovation and growth in the blockchain industry.