Avalanche’s X-Chain and C-Chain Suffers Network Outage

Layer-1 blockchain Avalanche suffered network outages on its X-Chain and C-Chain in the early hours of Thursday. The fault resulted in a decline of the network’s native coin, AVAX.

Avalanche distinguishes itself from its contemporaries by introducing three smaller blockchain networks within its ecosystem. They are Exchange Chain (X-Chain), Contract Chain (C-Chain), and Protocol (P-Chain). The purpose of these different chains is to scale the network’s overall throughput.

X-Chain facilitates the trading of cryptocurrencies within the Avalanche ecosystem. C-Chain focuses on the decentralized finance (DeFi) world, as it supports smart contract integration by developers. P-Chain coordinates the affairs of validators in the system.

What Went Wrong with Avalanche?

A bug in the network’s new software update (v1.9.12) was the genesis of the problem. A community member who saw the issue early as it happened on the X-Chain shared it on Twitter, urging the team’s developers to fix it.

The bug tampered with the speed of the X-Chain network, causing the proof-of-stake-powered blockchain to produce fewer transactions per hour. Before then, C-Chain had experienced an hour-long network outage.

Interestingly, the developers responded quickly and began pushing out fixes to the software on the project’s GitHub page. Validators who downloaded the Avalanchego v.1.9.14 update freed themselves from the shackles of the bug. At the time of writing, the network has been restored.

Despite the swift rectification of the software issue, the protocol’s native cryptocurrency AVAX saw a steep decline. At the time of the downtime, AVAX dropped by nearly 10%. The asset has recovered and now trades at $17.73.

Crypto Twitter Community Reacts

While some crypto community members on Twitter were impressed with Avalanche developers’ quick response, others appeared to be dissatisfied. Due to the network outage, they placed Avalanche on the same table as Solana, which has suffered several outages in the past.

Solana has a history of network failures, with the most recent occurring in late February.