- Shibarium faced technical challenges due to an unexpected surge in user activity post-launch.
- Over $1.7 million worth of ETH got momentarily stuck, but assets are safe and no bridge issues, assures Kusama.
Shibarium’s Launch: An Avalanche of User Activity
Shiba Inu’s ambitious project, Shibarium, experienced more than just growing pains upon its recent mainnet launch as an Ethereum layer 2 solution. Just hours after going live, the Shibarium bridge, which is paramount for a two-way asset transfer between Shibarium and Ethereum, reportedly became non-functional.
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— Shib (@Shibtoken) August 17, 2023
Such technical challenges, while unsettling, were amplified when over $1.7 million in Ethereum got stuck in the bridge. This caused significant stir and speculation among the crypto community.
Kusama Clarifies the Hiccups
Dispelling rumors and to ease community concerns, Shiba Inu’s lead developer, Shytoshi Kusama, addressed the matter head-on. In his statement to the “Shibarmy” – the affectionate moniker for Shiba Inu’s ardent supporters – Kusama was emphatic: the Shibarium bridge was operational and all assets were secure.
Kusama further debunked a circulating screenshot, supposedly quoting him, that the assets in the bridge were lost and “unretrievable.” Dismissing the authenticity of the screenshot, he stressed the imperative for the community to exercise caution with their sources of information.
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At the heart of the matter was not a flaw in Shibarium’s design or bridge, Kusama explained. Instead, the issue stemmed from a staggering and unforeseen influx of transactions and users immediately following the announcement of Shibarium’s live status. The network wasn’t prepared for this deluge, leading to the so-called “network congestion.”
Supporting his clarification, Kusama presented data from Alchemy, a third-party analytics service affiliated with the Shiba Inu network. Shibarium is allocated 400 million compute units monthly by Alchemy, a measure of the computational resources required for blockchain tasks. Astonishingly, within roughly 30 minutes of the mainnet launch, Shibarium consumed over 160 million of these units.
For those unversed in blockchain nuances, these compute units are essential for executing operations like smart contracts. Kusama’s revelations indicated that, if the initial traffic surge sustained, Shibarium could compete with the busiest layer 2 blockchain solutions available today.
Amid these challenges, Kusama didn’t fail to highlight some silver linings. Over 1000 ETH and 600,000 BONE were successfully transferred to Shibarium in merely 15 minutes post-launch.
Kusama concluded his address with an earnest plea: for patience as they scale Shibarium to meet its soaring demand and for vigilance against misinformation. As a testament to the events’ impact on market sentiment, SHIB, the native token of Shiba Inu, saw a dip of 11.70% within 24 hours of the launch.
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