By George Ward
The Shibarium mainnet, a component of the Shiba Inu ecosystem that uses Layer-2 blockchain technology, has successfully restarted its block production after a near 24-hour pause. Shibarium is a distinct offshoot of the Polygon blockchain, officially launched its mainnet on August 16, 2023.
The latest update from its block explorer, BlockScout, shows the network’s return to regular block production activities following the brief hiccups.
What Went Wrong With The Shibarum Launch?
Meanwhile, Shytoshi Kusama, the lead SHIB developer, engaged with the ShibArmy to address ongoing rumors and concerns about Shibarium. In an official blog post, the network’s lead developer stated that the bridge is working perfectly.
He clarified that the screenshots being circulated about the protocol’s problems do not accurately reflect the situation. He added that the platform is safe and secure, relieving the Shiba Inu community.
However, Kusama admitted that the Shibarium protocol faced several hurdles, particularly the unexpected influx of users immediately after the public unveiling. The developer also disclosed his astonishment at the ShibArmy’s significant influence, recalling times when SHIB Army constantly pushed prominent exchanges to list the token on their platforms.
Meanwhile, Kusama added that this launch was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the decentralized team to experience the ShibArmy’s power again. The lead developer further explained that the technical issues did not result from Shibarium’s fundamental design flaws.
Instead, they emerged due to an unprecedented simultaneous influx of users and transactions, which overwhelmed the system. Kusama openly stated that the dedicated team had been working nonstop to increase the system’s capacity to accommodate the increasing number of users.
The Shiba Inu developer cited data from ALCHEMY, a monitoring platform, to demonstrate the magnitude of the incoming traffic. Through their enterprise agreement with Alchemy, Shibarium had secured a massive allocation of 400 million compute units per month.
Surprisingly, the system had reportedly received 160 million of these allocated units within thirty minutes of the Shibarium launch. If this trend had continued, the projection suggested that daily utilization would be in the billions, rivaling the daily activities seen on some of the most active Layer-2 Blockchains.
Kusama stated that he was excited by the community’s engagement with the protocol. According to him, within an hour after Shibarium’s launch, the platform recorded substantial deposits of 1000 ETH and 600,000 BONE tokens by users.
Shibarium’s Popularity And Unexpected User Surge
Meanwhile, Kaal Dhairya, a Shiba Inu developer, recently posted a blog entry detailing the difficulties encountered during the Shibarium launch. In the post, he said the large volume of new users was a huge issue.
Then, he outlined the proactive measures the team is implementing to address these issues. Dhairya added that the user traffic surge had exceeded the team’s projections. However, he assured the Shiba Inu community that the team would provide regular updates for the community throughout the expansion process, with his blog post being the first update.
Dhairya further said the team discovered an unprecedented volume of contract creations and standard transactions crammed into a single block after a thorough investigation, which ultimately overwhelmed the protocol.
This massive transaction and user activities prompted the Shibarium protocol to activate a protective fail-safe mode to safeguard funds, which he approved. Given the challenges, Dhairya revealed that the team had enlisted the help of influential partners to collaborate with the Shibarium developers.
According to him, this collaborative effort will continue as it aims to scale the blockchain and identify appropriate solutions. He added that the community will be updated as these strategies are implemented.
On misinformation, Dhairya expressed his disappointment over a fabricated screenshot that caused significant damage to their project. He added that he was shocked by how many news outlets treated this deceptive post as if it was from a reliable source.
Coingecko data shows that SHIB remains down 3.3% in the last 24 hours, while BONE is down 6.9% within the same period.