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Last weekend, the Ethereum network was unusable for hours due to the extremely high volume of traffic caused by the launch of Otherside, the metaverse from Yuga Labs.
Otherside metaverse renders Ethereum unusable
Last weekend saw a real shock for the Ethereum blockchain, which remained virtually unusable in conjunction with the launch of the highly anticipated Otherside.
The launch of the virtual land would have literally sent Ethereum into a tailspin for hours because of the high volume of transactions that the blockchain is clearly not ready to handle.
The sale would have involved a total of 55,000 lots, at a fixed price of 305 ApeCoin (about $4200), the crypto created by Yuga Labs just over a month ago. Another 45,000 lots were distributed free of charge to owners of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection.
A further 100,000 lots will be distributed to those who help develop the project.
This launch of new plots on OpenSea by Yuga labs seems to have unexpectedly sparked the enthusiasm of the followers of the cute virtual apes, generating so much traffic that it literally sent the Ethereum blockchain into a tailspin.
Yuga Labs said in a tweet:
“We’re sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while. It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. We’d like to encourage the DAO to start thinking in this direction”.
We're sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while. It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. We'd like to encourage the DAO to start thinking in this direction.
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) May 1, 2022
The results of the sale
Yuga Labs’ sale of land on OpenSea is said to have raised around $320 million, setting a real record for sales of this type.
Jason Wu, founder of decentralized protocol DeFiner, said:
“Yuga Labs’ virtual land sale has triggered one of the highest spikes in transaction fees on Ethereum. I have seen other NFT launches causing high gas fees, but this is definitely one of the highest”.
According to what are indications that came from Yuga Labs, it was initially planned that the sale would be held in a Dutch auction format where the price of the Otherdeed NFT would drop over time just to avoid blockchain congestion and too high fees.
But it was later decided to limit the number of Otherdeeds that could be bought per portfolio in each wave of the sale. This did not stop the purchasing spree on Ethereum at all.
After the crash of Ethereum, the company Yuga Labs apologized on Twitter for “turning off the light on Ethereum” and suggested the possibility of creating an ApeCoin blockchain.
We're sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while. It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. We'd like to encourage the DAO to start thinking in this direction.
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) May 1, 2022