According to Cointelegraph, the mainnet of Polygon Heimdall V2, a crucial component of the Polygon proof-of-stake chain, experienced a temporary disruption on Wednesday due to a suspected consensus error. The issue, which affected communication between node validators, was resolved in less than an hour. Despite the disruption, the Bor layer, responsible for block production and transaction processing, remained unaffected. Polygon representatives confirmed that the disruption was caused by the exit of an unidentified validator from the network.
During the downtime, block production on the mainnet of Bor continued uninterrupted, and any discrepancy in network uptime and block explorer data is being addressed. Polygon is actively working with RPC providers to resolve the synchronization inconsistencies that arose after Heimdall's recovery. One provider has already resumed operations, albeit with a slight synchronization delay. The incident underscores the importance of consistent network uptime for blockchain networks, which seek to provide a reliable alternative to traditional financial systems.
The Heimdall V2 update, launched in early July, aimed to improve network performance by reducing finality times to around five seconds and updating the tech stack with CometBFT and Cosmos-SDK v0.50. This update is considered the most technically complex hard fork since Polygon's launch in 2020, according to Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. While the update has improved block times and network performance, it has also introduced additional complexities and potential points of failure.
Previously, the Heimdall V1 layer was also a source of network downtime. In March 2022, Polygon faced several hours of downtime due to a software bug in the Heimdall layer, which caused validators to operate on different versions of the blockchain. Ongoing efforts to improve network performance highlight the challenges that blockchain networks face as they strive to maintain uptime amid growing complexity.