Another spark of annoyance
On Tuesday, Yuga Labs announced that participants who complete a task in its ‘Legends of the Mara‘ (LoTM) game on the Otherside platform has a chance to win loot.
However, players who wanted to secure these NFTs on Ethereum’s blockchain were charged with hefty gas fees. What made matters worse was the fact that these rewards were initially intended to be free gifts.
It is striking that this is not the first copy Ethereum Gas Fees Worry Yuga. The company’s efforts to create virtual land slots in Otherside resulted in transaction fees rising to a whopping $157 million by May 2022, sparking significant outrage among its user base.
Yuga Labs response to criticism
Spencer Tucker, Chief Gaming Officer of Yuga Labs, addresses this controversy. apologized on Twitter for the problem of loot gas compensation. After this, he promised affected users a free in-game on-chain benefit called the ‘Catalyst’.
Unfortunately, these Catalyst NFTs did not satisfy Otherside players, who felt they did not solve the core problems with Ethereum-based NFT mining.
Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano also tried to calm the disgruntled community by promising to refund all gas fees incurred in minting loot on the Otherside platform. A measure that also failed to address lingering concerns about ETH fees.
To effectively address this challenge, Yuga Labs compensated its community by covering $265,000 in gas costs across approximately 640 refund transactions.
Potential strategies for today and tomorrow
Yuga Labs’ predicament has cast doubt on the future of Otherside Metaverse, the Agora marketplace, and most importantly, the company’s frameworks.
In retaliation, ApeCoin DAO – an autonomous organization that oversees $APE – has proposed the creation of its unique blockchain, the ApeChain, despite advocating staying with Ethereum in 2022 mainly for security reasons.
The DAO is currently exploring alternatives of several Ethereum Layer-2 networks, such as Optimism, Arbitrum and Polygon.
Although Yuga Labs has suggested that ApeCoin DAO could set up its blockchain to handle Ethereum’s traffic and fees, the company has been hesitant to publicly adopt such a network for the other side.
As Yuga Labs reviews its dependence on Ethereum, suspicions remain about the future of Otherside and Yuga Labs’ position in the world of cryptocurrency and NFTs.