The introduction of NFT virtual land deeds for Yuga Labs' Otherside—an upcoming metaverse game based on the Bored Ape Yacht Club—on Saturday was the largest NFT drop to date, with total sales volume exceeding $900 million. It wasn't all plain sailing, either.

The frenzied attempt by approved buyers to snap up the valuable NFTs drove up the Ethereum network's gas fees to startling levels. Yuga Labs offered up 55,000 Ethereum NFT "Otherdeeds" that represent digital terrain in the game, and the frenzied attempt by approved buyers to snap up the valuable NFTs drove up the Ethereum network's gas fees to startling levels.

During the "minting" process, which refers to how new NFTs are minted and sold, some users paid thousands of dollars in fees to expedite their transactions. During the transaction, bidders spent over $180 million worth of ETH only on fees. It made Ethereum prohibitively expensive for anyone to use at the time, resulting in a lot of social media arguing and griping among NFT owners.

Many famous Bored Ape Yacht Club collectors are dissatisfied with Yuga Labs' handling of the Otherside mint, as well as the company's response to the backlash.

Bored Ape NFT holder ap3father reflected on his loyalty to the community and personal gains from the project in a lengthy thread posted on Sunday, but also expressed unhappiness with the structure of the auction and contact from Yuga Labs.

https://twitter.com/ap3father/status/1520777898503909378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1520777899623829504%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdecrypt.co%2F99256%2Fbored-ape-creators-slammed-nightmare-ethereum-nft-land-drop
<blockquote>“The drop went unbelievably poorly. That's the truth of it all,” he wrote, adding that the overwhelming demand and high gas fees, the costs associated with transacting on the Ethereum network, created a “nightmare scenario” for buyers.</blockquote>
Yuga Labs invited NFT collectors to complete a know-your-customer (KYC) ID check weeks before the sale and before the public learned about the project. Prospective buyers who completed the check might be approved to try to mint the virtual land, which was selling for 305 ApeCoin (APE) at the time of the mint—nearly $5,800 per NFT.

For the 55,000 available NFTs, the team planned to run a Dutch auction, in which the price of the NFT steadily falls over the course of the sale to help offset high demand.

However, Yuga Labs wrote ahead of Saturday's mint that the format was "really crap," and that it would instead employ a set price and let customers mint extra NFTs in waves. They went on to say, "Fuck doing a Dutch auction."

https://twitter.com/0xBender/status/1520611779423789057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1520611779423789057%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdecrypt.co%2F99256%2Fbored-ape-creators-slammed-nightmare-ethereum-nft-land-drop

However, because so many people were authenticated for the drop, everything sold out in the first batch, and buyers collectively spent massive amounts of ETH to participate in the chaotic sale, there was never a second wave. Whatever the issues with Dutch auctions, Yuga's solution does not appear to be an improvement over the original concept.
<blockquote> “Yuga Labs didn't realize they were still doing a Dutch auction, it was just via gwei and not price,” joked Twitter user 0xBender, a Mutant Ape holder. Gwei refers to the way that Ethereum gas fees are denominated.</blockquote>
Some on Twitter speculated that Yuga Labs could have saved buyers time and money by using a different launch format, such as the canceled Dutch auction or an "allowlist" approach, which would have limited sales to a predetermined amount of whitelisted people and eliminated the need to mint NFTs at a specific time. However, even with Yuga's chosen model, there may have been potential for improvement.

https://twitter.com/0xQuit/status/1520618758678667265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1520618758678667265%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdecrypt.co%2F99256%2Fbored-ape-creators-slammed-nightmare-ethereum-nft-land-drop

Will Papper, a member of the ConstitutionDAO core team and co-founder of SyndicateDAO, posted a thread on Saturday night criticizing Yuga Labs' smart contract—the technology that runs the Otherdeed NFTs—for having "almost nil gas optimizations." He went on to explain how he believes Yuga could have saved customers money by using smarter coding.
<blockquote> “Koda this. Koda that. Why didn't they koda better contract??” tweeted user fudye_, referring to the colorful Koda creatures that Yuga Labs dispersed amongst the Otherside NFT lands.</blockquote>
<h2>A ‘tone deaf’ response</h2>
The Otherdeed minting procedure drew a lot of flak from the NFT community, as did Yuga Labs' post-sale comments. The corporation commented on the launch's scope and the resulting network congestion in a tweet thread.
<blockquote> “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. The scale of this mint was so large that Etherscan crashed,” Yuga Labs tweeted. “We're sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while.”</blockquote>
Despite Yuga Labs' apology for the network problems, many people believed the company was unrepentant about its decisions, which increased the disruption and costs for buyers. Yuga's statements were regarded "tone-deaf and probably 'too soon,'" according to Rug Radio creator Farokh, a well-known NFT celebrity, and Bored Ape bearer.

Yuga Labs announced on Twitter that it will refund any gas prices incurred as a result of failed transactions. The numerous millions spent on successful sales, on the other hand, are the responsibility of the buyers. And, to be honest, Otherdeed NFTs are selling in droves for far more than what people paid for them during the mint—exaggerated costs and all.

https://twitter.com/yugalabs/status/1520612362986078208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1520612362986078208%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdecrypt.co%2F99256%2Fbored-ape-creators-slammed-nightmare-ethereum-nft-land-drop

Even then, Yuga's reaction contains one more twist that has enraged some NFT collectors. "It becomes quite evident that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to fully scale," Yuga Labs stated in the thread.

In other words, Yuga Labs argues that the ApeCoin (APE) ecosystem, which has the potential to expand well beyond Otherside to encompass a variety of Web3 games and services, should depart from Ethereum and migrate to its own blockchain network. The company also stated that it will "urge the [ApeCoin] DAO" to think about taking that step in the future.

The perceived affront against Ethereum was taken personally by some. Following the mint, Ethereum engineer Mark Beylin tweeted that he had sold all of his Bored Ape-related NFTs. He accused Yuga Labs as being "high-level con artists" who intended to create a circumstance that would make an Ape blockchain appear necessary.

https://twitter.com/zengjiajun_eth/status/1520620738998272000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1520620738998272000%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdecrypt.co%2F99256%2Fbored-ape-creators-slammed-nightmare-ethereum-nft-land-drop
<blockquote>“Instead of designing their launch properly, Yuga broke Ethereum so that they would have an excuse to launch their own [layer-1 network],” he wrote. “APE needed a new narrative after the land sale.”

“I believe that the people who run Yuga Labs are using dark manipulation techniques in service of their personal interests,” Beylin added, “and you should assume they are bad actors.”</blockquote>
Apart from updating the community on the progress of gas fee refunds for unsuccessful transactions, Yuga Labs has yet to comment further on the Otherside drop since its aforementioned thread.

Bored Ape Creators Slammed for 'Nightmare' Ethereum NFT Land Drop, 'Tone Deaf' Response

Yuga Labs argues that the ApeCoin (APE) ecosystem, which has the potential to expand well beyond Otherside to encompass a variety of Web3 games and services, should depart from Ethereum and migrate to its own blockchain network.

Prabhjeet Bhatla is a cryptocurrency writer covering startups and a researcher since 2020. She has authored many articles for Entrepreneur India and APAC (digital and print) on cryptocurrency and ever-evolving Blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies. She specializes in applied cryptography, privacy-enhanced information storage systems, anonymous cryptocurrencies, elliptic curve crypto-systems, and satellite television piracy.

Bored Ape Creators Slammed for 'Nightmare' Ethereum NFT Land Drop, 'Tone Deaf' Response

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