Lighter Network Hit by Processing Bottleneck as Prover Falls Behind Sequencer

The Lighter Network is currently experiencing operational challenges, with its Prover component struggling to keep pace with the Sequencer’s processing speed. PANews reported on December 30 that this performance gap has created a significant backlog in the system.

The most pressing indicator of the issue is that the final block submission has remained frozen at block number 137759879 for more than four hours, highlighting the severity of the processing mismatch. This extended pause occurs because the Prover—responsible for generating cryptographic proofs—cannot validate transactions quickly enough to match the Sequencer’s block production rate.

As a direct consequence, the Lighter Network has temporarily suspended withdrawal functionality for users. This halt represents a critical constraint on user liquidity, preventing transactions from being processed until the underlying performance disparity is resolved.

The incident underscores the technical challenges that arise when different components of a blockchain system operate at mismatched speeds. Resolving this bottleneck will require either optimizing the Prover’s computation efficiency or adjusting the Sequencer’s production rate to ensure better synchronization between the two layers.