Inside Shibarium’s Launch Hiccups: How the SHIBarmy Battled Unprecedented Traffic Surge
The highly anticipated Shibarium launch proved that no amount of preparation can truly brace a project for the unanticipated strength and fervor of its community.
This comes after huge traction caused a storm amid the Shibarium launch, fuelling wild speculation on crypto twitter and triggering significant downside action on the markets.
But before we dive into the nitty-gritty of the recent event, let’s take a step back.
Unravelling the Shibarium Bridge Drama: Deep Diving SHIB’s Dip
Late on Wednesday, when the highly-anticipated Shibarium mainnet went live on shib.io, Crypto Twitter was abuzz with Shibarium News.
Unfortunately, the excitement was met with tumultuous price action as SHIB’s plunged nearly -9%, in a move triggered by market concern over apparent bridge issues affecting the new Layer-2 service.
Transactions on the network froze, with nearly 954 ether (ETH) and a whopping $750,000 of BONE – Shibarium’s governance token – stuck in limbo.
Bridging tokens to the Shibarium network became impossible, and wild speculation including now discredited fake screenshots alleging to be from Shiba Inu developer Shytoshi engulfed Twitter in a storm of FUD.
q3 2023
— smolting (wassie, verse) (@inversebrah) August 16, 2023
dogged pic.twitter.com/NSP7iLzPUe
For the uninitiated, bridges are pivotal tools in crypto, facilitating token transfers between different blockchain networks – their functionality is crucial, and any disruption has the potential to shake the market.
However, amid the mounting concern – which was exacerbated by social media rumours, one of the Shibarium developers took to blogging to address the chaos.
Shytoshi Kusama: All is Well in Shibaland
Refuting rumors of a bridge issue, the lead developer Shytoshi emphasized the cause of the problem: a sudden and massive influx of transactions upon the Shibarium launch announcement.
Shytoshi Kusama, the lead developer and the force behind Shiba Inu’s online persona, subsequently published a clarifying post on Shibarium’s eventful start.
And the crux of the issue? The SHIBarmy’s sheer strength overwhelmed the system on launch.
Despite robust preparations, which included validators set on autoscale, the Shibarium team couldn’t foresee the magnitude of traffic that ensued.
— Shytoshi Kusama™ (@ShytoshiKusama) August 17, 2023
For perspective, their service with Alchemy provided 400 million compute units per month, yet, within half an hour of the launch, they had burned through 160+ million units!
If this pace persisted, they’d be clocking in billions of compute units daily, rivalling the busiest L2 blockchains in existence.
Looking Ahead: Faith in the Shiba Swap and Shibarium Mainnet
Shytoshi’s message to the SHIBarmy was a plea for patience, asking them to trust the team’s efforts in scaling up, while also warning against potential misinformation and security threats.
It’s a testament to the project’s potential and the community’s dedication that within mere minutes, assets like 1000 Eth and 600,000 Bone were deposited into the new chain.
With Shytoshi’s clarifications, the path forward seems clear and hopeful, as the developer assured the community, all funds are safe (“safu”), and the team is diligently working to scale up and adapt to the overwhelming response.
Better yet? The -9% downside move triggered by the incident could prove positive for SHIB’s technical structure post-Shibarium.
With the RSI cooling-off to 44 on the price tumble, this key indicator has shifted from an over-bought to an over-sold signal.
And with clarification from Shytoshi putting wind behind SHIB’s sails – upside momentum is likely to resume as Shibarium grows.
As always, Shytoshi urged the community to stay vigilant and rely only on official sources like shib.io for accurate updates.
With the community’s unwavering support and the developers’ commitment, the vision for Shibarium, Shiba Swap, and the broader Shiba Inu project shines brighter than ever.
