Lighter Network Grapples with Prover Bottleneck, Halting Block Finality

A technical hiccup has emerged within Lighter Network’s infrastructure, creating a notable disruption in transaction processing. As reported on December 30, the Prover component has fallen behind the Sequencer’s processing cadence, creating a synchronization bottleneck that has stalled block finality at checkpoint 137759879 for an extended period exceeding four hours.

The root cause centers on processing speed disparities between two critical system components. While the Sequencer continues ordering transactions at its standard pace, the Prover—responsible for cryptographic verification and block commitment—has struggled to maintain synchronization, resulting in an accumulation backlog.

This desynchronization cascade has immediate consequences for the network’s user base. With block submission frozen at its current state, the Lighter Network has temporarily suspended withdrawal operations, preventing users from executing outbound transactions. The four-hour duration of this block limbo represents a significant service disruption, particularly given the growing reliance on seamless settlement in blockchain operations.

The technical nature of this bottleneck—rooted in Prover computational capacity trailing Sequencer throughput—suggests potential infrastructure scaling challenges that may require protocol-level optimization or resource allocation adjustments. Network operators are presumably investigating the gap and working toward rebalancing the processing pipeline to restore normal finality speeds for Lighter Network participants.