The The Open Network (TON) faced a significant reduction in bandwidth, leading to a backlog of approximately 2.5 million unconfirmed transactions. This phenomenon was the result of a sharp increase in activity associated with the implementation of a service similar to the Ordinals protocol.

Main Causes of the Problems

The problems began on December 5, when the transaction processing speed in the TON network dropped to one transaction per second. This occurred after the launch of the new Tonano service, using BRC-20 standard tokens, derivatives of the Ordinals protocol. Due to the unexpected increase in load caused by this service, validator nodes, operating on insufficiently powerful equipment, could not cope with the increased load, leading to the need to reboot the network. As a result of this situation, a number of cryptocurrency wallets, including TON Wallet and Tonkeeper, temporarily ceased operation.

Impact on Other Networks

The bandwidth issue was not limited to the TON network alone. BRC-20 tokens used in the Tonano service also caused an overload in the Bitcoin network, increasing the number of unspent transactions (UTXO) from 87 million to 140 million. This led to an increase in the average cost of transactions to $14-$16, highlighting the interconnection and dependence of different blockchains on each other.

Conclusion

The situation in the TON network and its impact on other cryptocurrency networks underscores the importance of blockchain infrastructure reliability and the need to be prepared for a sharp increase in load. TON developers are actively working to solve the problem to ensure the stability and safety of the network for users.