The Secret Battle in Solana: Covert DDoS Attacks Heighten Competitors’ Rivalry
In the world of Solana (SOL) network, a clandestine war is underway between major players, each vying to defeat their rivals. Analyst Duo Nine has shed light on this hidden conflict and the tactics employed by its participants.
According to Duo Nine, this covert war exists among the prominent crypto projects on Solana, unbeknownst even to ordinary members of the crypto community who may unwittingly fall victim to its consequences. The analyst suggests that users may find themselves unable to conduct transactions on Solana due to this ongoing rivalry.
Duo Nine posits that the major players are launching Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against one another with the aim of gaining priority in adding their transactions to the blockchain. Consequently, users of the projects targeted by their adversaries are unable to engage in transactions as the attacking side occupies all the available space in the blocks. This phenomenon can also be observed through the data of validators.
Delays in conducting operations can potentially lead to network malfunctions, and the targeted project’s reputation may suffer as a result. In turn, users of the affected platforms may opt to switch to rival sites. Hence, the warring factions are investing billions of dollars in these attacks to reap the benefits.
Furthermore, Duo Nine highlights that over 100 bot wallets could potentially subject Solana wallets to spam attacks. In this scenario, the attacking side bombards the victim with transactions containing minimal SOL, effectively rendering the wallet owner unable to transfer assets as the spam transactions fill all the available block space.
Despite victims of the attacks resorting to the creation of new wallets, this solution proves ineffective, as the fresh addresses are also at risk of being targeted by spam attacks.
“By spamming a specific Solana wallet from over 100 different bot wallets, you DDoS it every second with the smallest Solana unit… Since each block will be filled with receiving transactions, that wallet cannot send out any transactions! It’s effectively unusable,” stated Duo Nine.
This war breeds dissatisfaction amongst users of projects within the Solana ecosystem and infuriates developers. Duo Nine asserts that it is “killing” Solana, and no solution to this issue has yet been found.
The scrutiny surrounding Solana’s network emerged in the spring of 2024 with the rise in popularity of Solana meme coins. The interest in these altcoins spurred an analysis of their security, leading Blockaid analysts to discover that half of the token presales on Solana were fraudulent in April 2024.
Interestingly, back in 2022, many members of the crypto community predicted the downfall of the Solana project. Notably, the FTX crypto exchange, a major investor in Solana, suffered a collapse in November 2022. Nevertheless, Solana managed to weather the storm and display significant growth.