The TON network has slowed significantly after an increase in activity that some attribute to the launch of processes known as ‘inscriptions’. The TON Foundation has published a “Technical Incident Report”.
TON20’s “inscription” feature, similar to BRC20, enabled the blockchain to generate more than 2 million transactions within half an hour and increase network usage 61 times. As a result, the TON network became severely congested and verification was delayed, as @WuBlockchain described the problem on their X (Twitter). According to TonStat, a website that provides data on TON, there were approximately 2 million transactions on December 5 and another 800,000 transactions on December 6. This is a significant increase compared to the approximately 266 thousand transactions on December 4.
Previously, TON has claimed that it has set a “world TPS record” and will be able to process millions of transactions per second. However, the current blockchain situation does not match these claims, with the TON Foundation blaming the validators, claiming that they “run on weak hardware.” In response to the problem, the TON Foundation has released a new version of the software that focuses on increasing timeouts and managing large queues.
Controversy could arise around the network, as TON believes it can convince validators to move to new hardware if they change the “system of decentralized penalties for validators who do their job poorly or incorrectly.” Such a decision could prevent validators from working with the network.