Canto Blockchain Suffers Extended Outage Due to Consensus Issue

• Canto blockchain faced a 28-hour outage due to a critical consensus issue post-upgrade.
• A scheduled upgrade aims to resolve the issue, with user funds assured to be safe.
• The outage underscores the challenges of maintaining decentralized networks during updates.

Canto, a Cosmos-based Layer-1 blockchain, faced a significant network outage over the weekend, lasting more than twenty-eight hours due to a critical consensus issue.

The outage, which began on Saturday following the “Callisto” software upgrade, caused the blockchain’s mainnet to go offline around 18:43 UTC. This incident resulted in the suspension of all new transactions on the network. The issue was publicly acknowledged by Canto on its X account, where the team confirmed that the downtime was caused by a problem with the blockchain’s consensus mechanism.

To resolve the issue, Canto has scheduled an additional upgrade, aimed at addressing the problem, for 12:00 UTC on Monday. The development team reassured users that their funds remain safe despite the outage and that efforts are underway to restore the network to full functionality as quickly as possible.

Canto, which had previously announced plans to migrate to Ethereum as a Layer-2 network, later decided to maintain its status as a Layer-1 blockchain. This decision marked a significant shift in the platform’s strategy, indicating the team’s commitment to its existing infrastructure despite earlier intentions to leverage Ethereum’s ecosystem.

Earlier this year, Canto saw a significant increase in trading activity, reaching its highest point in January 2023. However, the platform’s importance has decreased since then, and Canto is now the 78th largest blockchain by total value locked (TVL), based on data from DefiLlama.

The recent outage and the following upgrade show the difficulties in keeping a decentralized network running smoothly, especially during big software updates. As Canto works to fix the current problems, this incident might lead to a rethinking of future upgrade plans to avoid similar issues.

This event serves as a reminder of the complexities involved in blockchain technology and the importance of robust consensus mechanisms in ensuring network stability and security.

While the outage has caused temporary disruption, the planned upgrade and the team’s reassurances suggest that the situation will soon be resolved. The focus now shifts to how Canto will handle future upgrades and maintain its network’s integrity in the face of such challenges.