[HN Gopher] Fed Is Down
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Fed Is Down
Author : chewz
Score : 31 points
Date : 2021-02-24 18:36 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.frbservices.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.frbservices.org)
| ilaksh wrote:
| How does this work? Is it a small group of federated servers? One
| big server? A WAN?
|
| Seems like a good demonstration of why a distributed technology
| like a "real" central bank digital currency would be an
| improvement.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| This is a demonstration that all systems have outages. It does
| not demonstrate a distributed ledger system would be superior.
| Distributed technologies have different trade offs and failure
| modes.
| ilaksh wrote:
| They usually have superior reliability, at least as far as
| the entire system crashing less.
|
| And some newer cryptocurrency strategies have very high
| transaction rates.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| It's going to be quite some time before the public at large
| trusts crypto over a centralized finance system backed by
| the full faith and trust in the US government (if ever).
| Currencies aren't about technology, they are an expression
| of power and trust.
|
| Less than two hours of downtime is nothing to write home
| about, and the Fed is down less frequently than major cloud
| providers and others those in technology would be familiar
| with and consider critical services. Simplicity is the
| ultimate sophistication, and it doesn't get much more
| simple than message queues and worker processes.
| ilaksh wrote:
| I was suggesting using cryptocurrency (such as Ethereum
| or PolkaDOT) to implement the centrally-controlled
| functions of the Federal Reserve currently being handled
| by simplistic queues or whatever it is.
|
| So this is a different discussion than the one your
| previous comment argues against.
|
| "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" is a nice-
| sounding catchphrase but in many contexts does not hold
| water. For example, systems without redundancy are
| objectively simpler but not more reliable.
|
| But more fundamentally, currency and money IS a
| technology. It's use is as you say to distribute power
| and express trust. But fundamentally it is a technology
| used for that purpose.
|
| Cryptocurrency is ultimately about putting power in the
| hands of the people and trust in mathematics rather than
| central authorities.
|
| Eventually the central banks and banking institutions as
| they exist now will be phased out and replaced with
| different paradigms that have some similar functions but
| more sophisticated technology.
| vangelis wrote:
| Which cryptocurrency lets me do a chargeback?
| ohiovr wrote:
| How is this affecting people?
| kuinak wrote:
| This prevents ACH and wire transfers from being processed.
| ivraatiems wrote:
| Is there a single point of failure here? That's crazy, if so.
| Why is this the case?
|
| I know the Fed is responsible for resolving transactions
| between banks, but one would expect they'd have a very very
| broad and resilient system.
| ilaksh wrote:
| See the response to my comment below. My impression is that
| the best solution is actually a high-thoroughput
| cryptocurrency for settlement.
|
| But cryptocurrencies are philosophically opposed to central
| control. And authorities are generally behind the times
| when it comes to technology. But it boils down to outdated
| technology based on "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
| ryantmorris wrote:
| My bank's wire room has ground to a halt.
| SQL2219 wrote:
| February 24, 2021 2:17 PM Eastern Time The issue impacting
| Central Bank applications has been resolved and users may resume
| normal access.
|
| February 24, 2021 2:14 PM Eastern Time Beginning around 11:15
| a.m. ET, Federal Reserve Bank staff became aware of a disruption
| for all services. Our technical teams have determined that the
| cause is a Federal Reserve operational error. We will provide
| updates via service status as more information becomes available.
| We acknowledge that payment deadlines are impacted and will
| communicate remediation efforts to our customers when available.
| Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve the issue.
|
| February 24, 2021 1:18 PM Eastern Time The Federal Reserve Bank
| staff is currently investigating a disruption to multiple
| services. We will continue to provide updates as soon as they are
| available.
|
| February 24, 2021 12:43 PM Eastern Time The Federal Reserve Bank
| staff is currently investigating a possible issue or disruption
| to multiple services. We will provide updates as soon as they are
| available.
| chewz wrote:
| February 24, 2021 2:46 PM Eastern Time The Fedwire Funds
| Service, Fedwire Securities Service, and National Settlement
| Service have resumed processing and are operating normally. The
| Federal Reserve Banks have taken steps to help ensure the
| resilience of the Fedwire and NSS applications, including
| recovery to the point of failure. Nevertheless, it is critical
| that you reconcile the messages you believe you had sent or
| received through the services after waiting several minutes for
| the backlog of messages to finish processing before you submit
| additional messages to the Fedwire Funds Service and Fedwire
| Securities Service and additional settlement files to the
| National Settlement Service.
|
| February 24, 2021 2:36 PM Eastern Time We are in process of
| restarting the Fedwire Services and National Settlement Service
| and expect to resume normal processing this afternoon. We plan
| to extend the cutoff times for the Fedwire Securities Service
| and may also extend the cutoff times for the National
| Settlement Service and Fedwire Funds Service. We will provide
| additional updates about these extensions.
|
| February 24, 2021 2:32 PM Eastern Time Access to FedCash
| Services via the FedLine Web solution has been restored. We are
| extending the cash order deadline for FedCash Services to 3:30
| p.m. local time of the servicing Federal Reserve Bank. Please
| contact your local FedCash Services customer support if you
| have any questions. For a complete list of customer support
| contacts for your institution, please visit the Contact page.
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(page generated 2021-02-24 23:02 UTC)