Ethereum Starknet mainnet experienced a second major outage within two months following an upgrade that sought greater decentralization. The sequencer stopped producing blocks and left transactions waiting while engineers intervened. This article summarizes the incident, its impacts, the team’s response and recommendations for Layer 2 systems.
About the Incident
The problem began after an upgrade that changed the sequencer’s operational model to spread control among more operators, but the new arrangement produced an unexpected issue that interrupted transaction ordering and block publication. Reports of the outage duration ranged from minutes to several hours, reflecting differences in observation points across operators and nodes and complicating precise measurement of the downtime.
Technical and Operational Impact
The sequencer was the component most affected, causing block production to stop until the team implemented a fix, and during that interval the chain effectively stopped progressing. The pause produced an accumulation of pending transactions, which meant users and dApps experienced delays, time-sensitive failures and increased risks for DeFi protocols with leveraged positions or tight liquidity strategies.
Team Response and Follow-up
The technical team deployed emergency fixes, prepared rollback plans and initiated a post-mortem to determine root causes, while monitoring and stabilizing the network. At the same time, community members requested greater transparency about pre-deployment testing and the governance rules that trigger sequencing-affecting updates, highlighting a demand for clearer communication around releases.
Implications for Decentralization
The incident underscores the tension between accelerating decentralization and maintaining operational reliability, because the sequencer remains a critical point for transaction ordering, censorship resistance and financial integrity. Moving from a centralized sequencer service to a distributed model introduces engineering and operational risks that must be mitigated through careful validation and staged rollouts.
Lessons and Recommendations for Layer 2s
Progressive, verifiable decentralization and stronger observability are essential, meaning changes should be introduced in stages with measurable checkpoints, improved monitoring and consistent alerts to enable faster, uniform diagnostics. Additionally, mitigation mechanisms such as circuit breakers, reduced-function safety modes and well-practiced rollback procedures can limit user impact when upgrades behave unexpectedly.
Repeated Starknet outages illustrate that openness and decentralization must be balanced with rigorous engineering and transparent processes. Users and developers should follow official channels for updates and consider diversification strategies until the network demonstrates sustained operational stability.
