XRP Ledger (XRPL) L2 Evernode Hits Major Node Issue, What’s Happening?

Evernode (EVR), the layer-2 scaling solution built on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) has run at a minor hiccup on its network in about a week since it went live after much postponement. 

The Evernode (EVR) Glitch

According to the update shared by Evernode on its X account, the rapid growth in the number of node hosts has spurred a major glitch that is affecting transaction settlement. 

The launch of Evernode came with so much fanfare. Despite the delay in the eventual launch of the protocol, it still recorded a massive embrace as showcased in the total number of addresses that participated in the EVR airdrop. The same growth tempo is now being maintained in the number of node operators.

“With the rapid increase in Hosts we are seeing a number of Xahau ‘heartbeat’ txns not succeed, despite multiple retries. This makes the Hook treat those Hosts as inactive. We’re investigating the cause and the fix,” Evernode said in the update shared on X.

Evernode Hosts

With the rapid increase in Hosts we are seeing a number of Xahau “heartbeat” txns not succeed, despite multiple retries.

This makes the Hook treat those Hosts as inactive. We’re investigating the cause and the fix.

More as soon as we know have the answer.

— Evernode – rEvernodee8dJLaFsujS6q1EiXvZYmHXr8🪝 (@EvernodeXRPL) January 21, 2024

While the investigation is ongoing, the Evernode/Xahau Explorer has shown some sparing transactions with the last two featuring a transfer of 31.69 EVR and 88.94 EVR. 

Though the node glitch is not entirely a good network outlook, the hiccup is a subtle sign of growth for Evernode and the XRP Ledger evolution. What the Evernode team is tasked with now is to turn this blown-out adoption into its strength by expanding the protocol’s bandwidth.

As noted in the update shared on X, more details will be unveiled as soon as new discoveries are made.

Evernode Joins Precedent Setters

The impact of the hiccup in transaction settlement, while not very pronounced as of writing, has set Evernode on a similar pedestal as protocols on other chains that have suffered similar network halts.

The Solana (SOL), prior to its rejuvenation was associated with a series of outages that once threatened its growth. With so many fixes and regular upgrades, Solana soon got freed from these outages and is now one of the most stable protocols around today.

Shiba Inu’s Ethereum scaling solution Shibarium is also one of the Layer-2 protocols that recorded a massive outage at launch, as it got overwhelmed with traffic congestion at launch in August last year. With targeted engineering work, Shibarium was back on track and a similar trend might be ahead for Evernode.