In a recent development, Terra, powered by LUNA, encountered a significant surge in transaction activity, causing block congestion and delays for users attempting to execute transactions. The recent incident involved a token minting process, dubbed an “inscription” token, which demanded approximately 3 million gas per mint. This, combined with the involvement of multiple bot accounts alongside authentic user participation, contributed to the congestion issue within the Terra network.
In light of Terra’s block gas limit capped at 100 million, the token minting contract, demanding approximately 3 million gas per mint, had the potential to monopolize a block, accommodating only about 33 transactions. This bottleneck significantly disrupted the flow of regular user transactions within the network, causing substantial delays and hindrances in executing their intended actions.
Despite the congestion, no Terra validators faced penalties or were incapacitated during the minting process. The TFL Core Team’s swift response was instrumental in promptly addressing the situation. They collaborated with Terra validators to implement temporary measures that raised minimum gas fees and dissuaded spam activities. Additionally, an on-consensus-breaking patch was deployed by the TFL Core Team to reduce the number of invalid transactions per block, thereby enhancing user experience and network efficiency.
The intentions behind the token contract creator’s actions remain ambiguous, although speculations suggest a possible attempt to capitalize on Terra’s recently implemented FeeShare module. This module redistributes a segment of the fees generated by Terra’s smart contracts to the contract owners, possibly motivating such high-frequency transactions.
To preclude similar congestion issues in the future and circumvent the necessity for manual interventions during network congestion peaks, the Core Team is actively exploring implementing a dynamic fee model. This model would dynamically adapt Terra’s minimum gas fees in response to fluctuating network demands, ensuring a smoother operation during high transaction volumes.
The TFL Core Team sincerely appreciated the Terra community’s patience and understanding throughout the resolution process. Providing reassurance, they affirmed that transactions across the entirety of the Terra ecosystem, encompassing StationWallet and associated applications, have swiftly returned to their accustomed seamless operation following the effective mitigation of the congestion issue.
