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Solana CEO hoses down claims network outages caused by on-chain voting

February 28, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Anatoly Yakovenko

Solana Labs founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko said claims that Solana's network outages were caused by on-chain voting were born out of "pure ignorance."

Anatoly Yakovenko, the founder and CEO of Solana Labs has downplayed claims that Solana's network outages were being caused by a high volume of validator messages and its on-chain voting system clogging its consensus layer.

While the Solana Foundation confirmed in a Feb. 27 post that the “root cause” of the recent 20-hour network outage is still not clear, the CEO responded to speculation that Solana’s decision to include on-chain votes as transactions is a “massive design flaw” that has led to its many outages.

The controversial thread in question was posted by Twitter user DBCryptoX earlier on Feb. 27 days after Solana's 20-hour network outage, suggesting that the high volume of validator messages and on-chain votes were clogging the network.

1/Yesterday #Solana had another 20 hour outage

Just one of about a dozen times the ⛓️ has gone down. But why?

All part of a massive design flaw that I will try to break down in this

So let’s get into it… pic.twitter.com/KmeUPnnlZJ
— DBCryptoX ⚡️ (@DBCrypt0) February 26, 2023

However, Yankovenko in a response Tweet some 20 minutes later called the theory as coming from “pure ignorance.”

In short, he explained that the votes — which are part of a “single giant quorum” — contribute to provide an “exceptional level of security and high throughput and low fees” simultaneously.

Why are votes transactions? Every thread that I've seen that talks about this comes form pure ignorance.

Classic BFT consensus requires quadratic messaging overhead.

The more nodes you have in the same quorum, the part of the network that agrees on the state, the more messages… https://t.co/8lOhICb8mn
— toly (@aeyakovenko) February 27, 2023

However, Yakovenko didn’t exactly refute DBCryptoX’s claim that 90-95% of transactions on Solana comprise these validator messages and on-chain votes, which, DBCryptoX suggests has helped “bog down the system.”

*DBCryptoX claims that validator messages and on-chain votes are clogging up the Solana network. Source: Twitter.*

DBCryptoX also claimed that the network outages were last 20 hours because it takes considerable time for validators to meet and reach a consensus (and thus a solution) using off-chain means, such as a messaging system like Discord.

Many commentators on DBCryptoX's initial post also appear to have disagreed with their theory.

Software engineer Alex Kroeger of Solana-powered Wallet Phantom said that there is likely no singular cause of the network outages and that validators of proof-of-stake systems need a lot of network communication to achieve validation.

While the network officially restarted on late Feb. 25, it appears as though members of the cryptocurrency community are getting tired of the frequent network outages on Solana.

Cointelegraph reached out to Solana Labs for comment but didn't receive a response by the time of publication.

Solana Spaces will close New York and Miami stores 7 months after opening

February 22, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Aurory

Norby said the “experiment” was part of a plan to onboard more people onto Solana, but the stores didn’t bring in as many users as they initially hoped.

Solana Spaces will close down its two Solana (SOL)-themed, community-oriented retail stores in New York City and Miami at the end of the month, as the physical stores didn’t onboard as many users as initially anticipated.

Solana Spaces tweeted the news on Feb. 21, sharing a note from founder Vibhu Norby explaining the reasons behind the store shutdowns.

The following is a note from our founder, @vibhu.

Dear @solanaspaces community,

We’ve made the difficult decision to sunset our stores in NYC and Miami by the end of February, and to pivot our Solana onboarding efforts into digital products like DRiP, our free NFT product with… https://t.co/kjNu9Ay4Gk
— Solana Spaces (@solanaspaces) February 21, 2023

Norby — who founded Solana Spaces in early 2022 — explained that the company reached an “inflection point” with the stores, prompting them to shift its investment focus to “DRiP,” the firm’s new nonfungible token artwork airdrop platform.

“While our stores onboard between 500 and 1,000 people per week, DRiP onboards that same quantity EVERY DAY,” Norby said, explaining the decision to shift its investment focus.

The decision to close the shops — located in the Hudson Yards neighborhood of Manhattan and the Wynwood section of Miami — was made “a few weeks ago,” and they will “sunset” at the end of February, Norby said.

The ambitious initiative was relatively short-lived, with the two stores having only officially opened in late July and August in New York and Miami respectively.

Norby said the “experiment” was part of a broader plan to onboard more people into the Solana and Web3 ecosystem:

“Our endowed mission from day one was to experiment with new and disruptive models to bring people to Web3, and to serve the community on behalf of the Solana Foundation.”

“As I told people often, as awesome as the stores were, if we found a more efficient way to bring people into Solana, we would throw our efforts at that,” he added.

But as he has since realized, the firm’s efforts may achieve better results in the digital realm with DRiP.

The Solana-themed stores offered customers the opportunity to partake in all things from in-person wallet onboarding tutorials, earning rewards, merchandise shopping and attending events.

*Solana Space’s first store, located in New York. Source:* *Solana Spaces*

When Solana Spaces opened its first New York-based store in late July, Norby hoped the store would bring in more than 100,000 people to Solana per month.

However, Norby stated in his letter that only 75,000 people managed to walk into the store over the course of its seven-month tenure.

The startup was sponsored by the Solana Foundation, the Solana-based wallet provider Phantom and the native crypto exchange Orca, and while it didn’t work out, it did appear to have won over a lot of fans.

Just visited for my 2nd time a few days ago!
Thank you for the experience!
Every time I come to Miami I have to make a pilgrimage to SolanaSpaces pic.twitter.com/ugCqbSyIzg
— Investrepreneuer.sol (@LordHearMePray) February 15, 2023

Several Solana-native industry players, such as the videogame projects Star Atlas and Aurory, thanked Solana Spaces for its contribution to the ecosystem.

We're sad to hear the news of @solanaspaces closing their Miami and NYC stores The events that Star Atlas attended and hosted there were beyond incredible!

Even so, we can't wait to see what comes from their pivot to DRiP! https://t.co/4voal4yzfC pic.twitter.com/bXV8PKG6LE
— Star Atlas (@staratlas) February 21, 2023

The closure comes as the prolonged crypto winter has caused many industry-leading companies to lay off staff and close down offices all around the world.

Crypto wallets combat scammers with transaction previews and blocklists

January 31, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitski

New features aimed at protecting users come amid recent crypto thefts and phishing attacks targeted at well-known crypto executives and influencers.

United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase has become the latest crypto wallet provider to roll out transaction previews and blocklists amid a rise in crypto thefts.

On Jan. 30, the crypto exchange announced it had integrated a new suite of safety features to its wallet app to make it easier for users to spot and take action on potential foul play from scammers.

Such integrations include a transaction preview feature which gives the user an estimation of how users “token and NFT balances will change” during a transaction before the confirm button is hit.

The firm has also rolled out token approval alerts, which make it clear to the user when a decentralized application dApp is requesting approval to withdraw tokens and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

Additionally the firm has also introduced new layers of permission management that enable users to revoke dApp connections directly from the app to help minimize “exposure to potential vulnerabilities.”

The crypto exchange joins the ranks of several other crypto wallet providers that have either rolled out or announced similar features aimed at combating crypto scams and phishing attacks, including Solana-based Phantom, Web3 wallet provider Ember and Bitski.

Just two days after Moonbirds creator Kevin Rose admitted to losing $1.1 million in NFTs via a targeted phishing attack, Phantom reminded users on Jan. 27 that its wallets are protected with a number of security features which include transaction previews, an open source blocklist, NFT spam reporting and burning.

The firm explained its transaction preview feature: "when you take an action in Phantom, like minting an NFT, we scan your transaction and proactively find anything that looks fishy. Website looks fishy? You get a warning. Trying to obfuscate code? Warning. Interacting with suspicious tokens? Warning.”

While the open-source blocklist consists of a “community-maintained list of malicious domains” that Phantom blocks users from mistakenly connecting with.

12/ We’re proud of the security features we have implemented, but this is only the beginning.

We will continue to work tirelessly to protect our users with best-in-class security features, education, and support to make everyone’s journey through web3 safe, easy, and fun.
— Phantom (@phantom) January 26, 2023

Tweeting on the same day as Phantom, Web3 wallet provider Ember detailed the list of its own security tools.

The list includes translation previews, token and NFT locking to stop assets being drained as part of malicious transactions, and approvaling revoking.

5/7) As well, Ember allows you to lock your NFTs and tokens, which disables the ability to send or sell them until they have been unlocked which requires your authentication to do so

This means that if you do sign a malicious transaction, your locked assets can't be drained
— Ember (@EmberWallet) January 27, 2023

On Jan. 24, Bitski also indicated that it was working on similar integrations via its 2.0 wallet, with product designer Jasmine Xu noting that this will cover “self custody, dapp browser, transaction simulation previews, notifications about account activity, in-app burner vault, and a bunch more in a few weeks.”

In its most recent blog post, Coinbase said in the coming weeks, the firm will launch a feature so that users can “view and revoke existing token balances.”

These types of features are important for crypto and NFT users, as scammers/hackers deploy a wide array of tools to hijack transactions and get funds sent to them instead of the originally intended destination.

Popular methods that dupe even experienced users consist of phishing attacks, scam airdrops directing people to click on malicious links and malware.

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Solana wallet fires up the grill to burn spam NFTs out of existence

August 18, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The Phantom wallet app has launched a new Burn Token feature, allowing users to remove spam NFTs sent by scammers.

Solana-based wallet provider Phantom has launched a new burn feature allowing users to remove spam non-fungible tokens (NFTs) sent by scammers.

According to an Aug. 18 blog post from the Phantom team, the new feature is accessible via the Burn Token tab in the Phantom wallet app, allowing users to receive a minuscule deposit of Solana (SOL) each time they use it.

“We’re still in the Wild West days of Web3. As the crypto ecosystem grows, so have the number of bad actors looking for ways to steal user’s funds. The rapid growth in popularity of NFTs has led to an increasingly prevalent method of attack for scammers – Spam NFTs.”

Phantom noted that the issue has been particularly prevalent on Solana due to its low transaction fees, with bad actors often airdropping supposedly free NFTs en masse which contain malicious links.

Spam NFT generally prompt the receiver to click a link to mint a free NFT, however, if they complete the process, their funds end up being drained from their wallet. Alternatively, the link will ask the receiver to input their seed phrase, resulting in the same outcome.

“These scams are becoming increasingly more sophisticated. For instance, after a contract address and domain are identified as malicious, scammers can change the metadata of an NFT to try to avoid being blocklisted. It can feel like an endless game of whack-a-mole,” the blog post read.

The move is part of a broader initiative by Phantom to counter spam NFTs and bad actors in the space. The team stated that it also fights scammers through its phishing warning system, which issues warning to users on “any malicious transactions that could compromise their assets or permissions” after clicking on dubious links.

5/ While we’re introducing NFT burning and improved phishing alerts today, we’re not stopping there. Users can look forward to more automated spam detection in the future.

To read more about how we're fighting wallet spam, check out our latest blog post:https://t.co/OZYOEvVIFH
— Phantom (@phantom) August 17, 2022

The post added that Phantom is currently collaborating with Blowfish to improve how “we alert users to phishing attempts.”

“While we’re introducing NFT Burning today, we’re not stopping there. Users can look forward to more automated spam detection in the future. Using providers like SimpleHash and our own internal reporting, we will be able to gauge if an NFT is likely to be spam,” the post read.

Phantom is one of the most popular wallet providers for Solana-based NFTs and decentralized fiance (DeFi), with more than 2 million monthly active users according to the firm.

At the start of August competing wallet firm Slope suffered a security exploit which saw an estimated $8 million worth of funds drained on the Solana blockchain.

In a post mortem analysis, Solana’s head of communications Austin Fedora found that 60% of the victims of the attack were Phantom users, despite the issue originating from Slope.

Solana hosted the second largest amount of NFT sales volume in July at $56.1 million, behind only Ethereum which posted a whopping $535.6 million according to data from CryptoSlam.

Phantom

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