Celo network back online after almost 24-hour outage

Published at: July 15, 2022

Proof-of-stake- (PoS)-based blockchain Celo has been suffering from an on-and-off network outage lasting 24 hours, though the blockchain appears to be up and running again.

Celo is an open-source blockchain that enables users with phone numbers to make payments with crypto by using their phone numbers as a proxy for public keys.

Celo updated its Twitter followers after the network came back online, noting it was the network’s first outage since the mainnet launch on April 22, 2020, and that it has begun a “thorough and expedited technical analysis” to get to the bottom of the issue.

The protocol made the initial announcement that the network had stalled on Thursday at 12:04 am UTC at block 14,035,019, assuring that “all funds are safe.”

It resumed around nine hours later for several minutes before pausing again at block 14,035,045.

At the time of writing, the network appears to be up and running again following an upgrade of its validator nodes to version 1.5.8, according to a Celo block explorer.

Update: Celo validators have resolved the network’s first outage since mainnet launch on April 22, 2020. A thorough and expedited technical analysis is ongoing and details will be readily shared with the Celo community.

— Celo (@CeloOrg) July 15, 2022

On the protocol’s Discord channel, one of the network’s validators with the username “Dee” said they saw the latest outage as “part of the growing pains” of the network but that they remained confident in the fundamentals as it was the first network halt in over two years:

“Even Visa had some network outage over the past two years despite being a market leader in payments for over 60 years.”

The Celo protocol’s white paper claims that it enables users to send payments “as easy as sending a text message.” The network touts an average block time of five seconds, is Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible and supports smart contracts and decentralized applications.

The Celo network is also the protocol behind three stablecoins — Celo Dollars (cUSD), Celo Euros (cEUR) and Celo Reals (cREAL), as well as its native token Celo (CELO).

Earlier this week, the Helium network suffered a four-hour outage due to validator outages from a software update, causing delayed transaction finality.

On June 1, the Solana network suffered yet another outage, causing block production to halt for four and a half hours. It was one of seven network outages over the last 12 months.