Stacks Resumes Block Production After Critical Bug Fix — Network Still at Risk Without Node Upgrades

🧱 Stacks Is Back Online — But the Fix Isn’t the Finish Line

After weeks of network hiccups and stalled blocks, Stacks is finally producing again. The bug? A deep-seated flaw in how nodes sync mempools — hiding in the codebase since 2020.

Yes, it’s been quietly ticking away for four years. And it took a Bitcoin fork to wake it up.

🛠️ What Actually Broke?

On April 18, things got weird. Stacks devs noticed nodes freezing up during high-volume blocks. The culprit?

• A bug in stacks-node’s RPC + mempool sync logic
• Triggered when Bitcoin hit block 897442
• Result? Block production stalled

Only after digging through years of logs and code did the devs finally isolate the fault.

⚠️ Good News: Fixed. Bad News: Not Everyone’s Updated

On May 24, version 3.1.0.0.11 dropped. It includes the critical patch — but it only works if people install it.

Stacks warns:

“Until all miners and signers update, network stability is still at risk.”

Translation: 🚨 Production may still degrade randomly.

🧭 Timeline Recap

• April 18 – Performance bugs appear
• May 19 – Bitcoin fork triggers delays
• May 23 – Root bug identified
• May 24 – Patch released, blocks resume

🔄 Call to Action: Upgrade or Break Things (Again)

If you run a node — upgrade now. If you’re mining or signing — don’t wait. If you’re building on Stacks — watch the logs.

Because unless everyone’s on the same version, another blackout is just a block away.

🧠 Why It Matters

Stacks is Bitcoin’s smart contract layer — powering DeFi, NFTs, and more without leaving Bitcoin’s security umbrella.

But this episode shows:

• 🧱 Even top L2s are vulnerable to long-buried bugs
• 🔧 Infra upgrades require community-wide coordination
• ⚡ One old bug can take down a whole ecosystem

🧠 TL;DR: Stacks Is Producing Blocks Again — But It’s Not Bulletproof Yet

• 🧱 Stacks fixed a critical mempool sync bug hiding since 2020
• 🛠 Patch deployed in version 3.1.0.0.11
• 🚨 Network still vulnerable until all nodes upgrade
• ⚡ Layer 2s aren’t immune — and Bitcoin forks can break more than you think
• ⏰ Time-sensitive call: Upgrade now, or risk more outages

Lesson: Infrastructure bugs don’t go away — They wait for the worst possible moment.

Stacks just dodged a bullet. Let’s not reload the chamber.