On Saturday, April 30th, Bored Ape’s creators Yuga Labs broke Ethereum. Their new metaverse-inspired project, Otherside sold plots of virtual land to a roaring crowd of people yelling “Shut up and take my money!” In this case, the currency in question was ApeCoin was recently launched. However, since Ethereum host ApeCoin and the land NFTs, the roaring crowd needed ETH to pay for the operations’ gas fees.
If you’re familiar with Ethereum, you already know what happened. According to IntoTheBlock’s Lucas Outumuro, “The Bored Ape’s Otherside land sale led to more fees being processed by Ethereum in three hours than in the previous two weeks.” Of course, all hell broke loose. The gas prices across the network went through the roof, many transactions failed causing people to lose their gas fees, and others just couldn’t afford to mint the NFT lands they were entitled to.
The Otherside virtual plots NFTs (also known as Otherdeeds) were sold at the end. In gas fees alone, the Ethereum network made around $125M. It didn’t survive the madness unscathed, though. Several Ethereum-based projects reported failed and/or slow operations and Etherscan, Ethereum’s block explorer, completely crashed. “We’re sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while,” Bored Ape’s creators Yuga Labs stated.
Origins of Otherside
Yuga Labs secured a $450M funding round from Andreessen Horowitz in March to fund Otherside. Apparently, it’s a Metaverse project in the vein of Decentraland and The Sandbox, but with a Play-To-Earn element built into it from the beginning. They also created now-defunct http://somethingisbrewing.xyz/Ask people to KYC their own addresses and connect their personal data to Ethereum addresses.
Registered addresses could mint up to 2 acres of land on the Otherside playground. Bored Ape’s holders received two free plots each. The total number of Otherdeeds is 55K. Each one costs 305 ApeCoin to mint. Plus, the Ethereum network’s gas fees. Even though it was expensive, considering Yuga Lab’s successful track record, it seemed like a steal.
This was true up to the point that gas prices reached an unpayable level.
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Bored Ape’s Creators Yuga Labs Speak
After selling everything, breaking everything, and leaving humble collectors land-less, the Bored Ape’s creators responded to the controversy with this brief Twitter thread.
It is well-known that the Otherdeed Mint was a rare size for a highly sought after NFT collection. This would have brought with it some unique challenges.
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) May 1, 2022
Yuga Labs also stated the following:
- Many people demanded to be included, even though the KYC procedures were taken. “This has been the largest NFT mint in history by several multiples, and yet the gas used during the mint shows that demand far exceeded anyone’s wildest expectations.”
- ApeCoin is going to become an actual cryptocurrency and not just an Ethereum token. “It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. ”
Sorry to turn off Ethereum’s lights for a bit. ApeCoin must migrate to its own blockchain in order for it to scale properly. This is something we encourage the DAO too.
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) May 1, 2022
- They will refund the gas fees of the operations that didn’t go through. “For those of you affected, we appreciate your willingness to build alongside us – know that we’ve got your back and will be refunding your gas.”
- Yuga Labs made a post after the fact that they had begun gas-refunding. “Note that you do not need to do anything – we will transfer it all back to your wallet and announce when it is completed. Don’t click any links.”
All Otherdeed users who failed to complete transactions will be refunded their gas. Note that you do not need to do anything – we will transfer it all back to your wallet and announce when it is completed. You should not click any hyperlinks.
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) May 2, 2022
Even though it sounds like the Bored Ape’s creators are doing the right thing, its worth noting that the people receiving said refunds didn’t get to buy an Otherdeed NFT and the collection sold out. Although they are still able to purchase them at a premium on the secondary marketplace, the community isn’t happy.
Bored Ape’s Users Speak
Here are a few opinions on the launch. Most of these people are Bored Ape’s rich and are heavily invested in the Yuga Labs ecosystem, but they’re worried. Let’s summarize what they said.
- According to Ap3father, “This drop was disastrous. That’s the truth of it all.” Plus, “this drop did nothing to help further the distribution of the already popular Yuga community … the same 27.5k people bought ..” However, he reflects, “Yuga Labs made me a millionaire. I am beyond spoiled, humbled, and blessed to be in this situation because of them.”
The drop went unbelievably poorly. It’s all true. The initial thesis was that not enough KYC wallets exist for it to sell out in wave-1 .. not only was that incorrect … It sold out with 2+E in gas the entire way … a nightmare scenario …
— ap3father.eth (@ap3father) May 1, 2022
His conclusion is that “The community responded atrociously to this mint.” And his advice is to sell, “You may have millions in NFTs and that’s outstanding, but grab onto reality. When you die one day … they don’t bury you in the metaverse my friend. ” He has extra Bored Apes, though, so he’s not going anywhere. “I am excited to both sell some apes & continue my journey into the otherside.”
- For his part, Irish expressed suspicion. “How does the biggest innovators in the space not forsee a gas war? You literally have every address, identification of every KYC’d. Offer each KYCd 2 lands?” And tried to get Yuga Labs to honor their promise to sell him land, “We hear how you “make good” I’m thrilled you are paying failed transactions! Acknowledge your mint mistake.”
It was a 3 hour long process of refreshing, trying to be like others. Let those KYC’d mint spread the word about wallets. Two weeks should have been allowed. Put on the allowed mint list contract. You chose to do the same as Gary Vee.
— Irish (@Irishmikeys) May 2, 2022
- The other side, Yuga Labs were defended by 3433. “Yuga let us mint BAYC for 0.08, they gave us Dogs to claim currently worth 9 ETH, they gave us free serums worth 57 ETH to drink or hold/sell which made Mutants, worth 30 ETH, they gave us 100-200k USD worth of $APE coin.”
Although the mint might have been better and we could have had a cue/raffle system, every mint that succeeds on ETH has failed, as we all know.
— 3433.eth 🍌 ☕️ (@boredape3433) May 1, 2022
Vitalik Buterin Speaks
- Last but not least, Ethereum’s creator Vitalik Buterin defended the Yuga Labs smart contract that governed the whole operation. “Regardless of contract details, tx fee goes up until list price + tx fee = market price. If gas usage per purchase decreased 2x, the equilibrium gas price would have just been >12000 gwei instead of 6000.”
Do not think that optimizing the contract will help. The tx cost goes up from the market price to list price, regardless of details in your contract. If gas usage per purchase decreased 2x, the equilibrium gas price would have just been >12000 gwei instead of 6000.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 1, 2022
Nevertheless, the Bored Ape’s creators seem pretty determined to create their own blockchain. Others suggest they even orchestrated the whole thing to market and justify it.
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