OptiFi, a derivative decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Solana network, announced the sudden closure of its mainnet on Tuesday, causing users to lose access to the $661,000 worth of assets locked on the platform.
Upgrade Gone Wrong
On Monday, the developers behind OptiFi initiated an upgrade of the project’s mainnet. However, due to possible congestion on the Solana blockchain, the upgrade took a long time to process without success. The team then canceled the upgrade process, which resulted in the movement of 17.2 SOL (worth approximately $533) into a new “buffer account.”
To retrieve the strayed fund, the developers used a command called the “Solana program close,” which they believed would reverse the creation of the new account and result in the fund’s recovery. However, the process ultimately resulted in the permanent closure of the project’s program ID – optFiKjQpoQ3PvacwnFWaPUAqXCETMJSz2sz8HwPe9B.
Consequently, OptiFi’s total value locked (TVL) which is worth around $661,000, as revealed on DefiLllama, is currently locked and inaccessible, since they are tied to the program ID.
Meanwhile, the protocol assured users that their funds would be refunded within two weeks, where it said:
“We promise that we will return all users’ deposits and settle all user positions manually according to Pyth oracle at 8 AM Sep 2nd UTC. All transactions and deposits will be based on Solscan. The estimated process time will be two weeks.”
Hard Lesson
Realizing its faults, OptiFi mentioned some things that can be done to avoid such things from happening in the future, even to other projects. One of them was the introduction of a “peer-surveillance approach”. This entails that three separate parties will be involved in the execution of deployment processes to mitigate the risk of errors.
Another thing the project noted was the need for a separation between the “capital pools”, where users’ funds are stored, and the “Main program.” Finally, the team said Solana officials need to outline the risk involved in using the “Solana program close” command.
Mainnet Recovery Process
After a failed attempt to restart the program ID, the team contacted Solana for possible recovery, but no response suggested that the funds were retrievable.
Richard Patel, a contributor to Jump Crypto, a subsidiary of Jump Trading Group, shared a proposal showing a possible solution to the current problem with deleted Solana programs and the funds locked in the programs.
However, the process for such a proposal to be implemented is difficult, as the proposal will undergo a technical review. After scaling through that successfully, the proposal will then be embedded as a feature in the Solana mainnet. Finally, the majority of Solana validators will need to approve the feature for it to get activated on the Solana mainnet.
Source: https://coinfomania.com/optifi-mistakenly-shuts-down-mainnet/