While most people pay close attention to the dropping crypto prices, networks face other issues too. After Ethereum facing congestion for a while, it now seems Polygon, Fantom, and Cardano face similar issues. It is not a good look for the broader industry, highlighting the need for proper scaling.
Polygon Congestion And Sunflower Farmers
One reason developers explore networks like Polygon is to offset Ethereum network congestion and high fees. Unfortunately, the congestion aspect has affected Polygon too, due to the launch of the play-to-earn game Sunflower Farmers. The objective is to farm token rewards as quickly as possible, spamming the network with transactions.
Due to the game launch, network fees on Polygon increased significantly, affecting all other DApps on the network. So the concept of awarding game tokens for every game action – and plenty of tasks to complete – may not have been the most brilliant idea, yet it shows the network isn’t necessarily scaling well either.
Fantom Gwei Spikes
The recent launch of 0xDAO on Fantom has triggered rather similar consequences for the network. Gwei rates went up to 3,000-5,000 all of a sudden, with the pending transaction queue filling up quickly. Although the network has seemingly returned to normal again, it is another sign of potential network aspects that need to be addressed and improved upon in a future release.
Even today, the gwei rates are still as high as 3,000, although these rates will continue to fluctuate by the minute. Additionally, the network queue is slightly lower, which is a healthy overall sign. The growing popularity of blockchains highlights any shortcomings in the technology today.
Cardano Buckles Due To SundaeSwap
Cardano aims to position itself as a strong contender for becoming the top smart contract platform. An interesting outlook, although the first DApp on the network immediately triggered congestion. In addition, SundaeSwap yielded numerous failed transactions and platform errors, resulting in a frustrating user experience. Some swaps were delayed by hours, which is unacceptable.
The big question is what the developers can do to address these issues. Network congestion is a very big problem and results in thousands of pending orders. Cardano’s throughput is insufficient for one DApp, let alone supporting dozens or hundreds. An upcoming node upgrade may alleviate some concerns, although better solutions are needed.