(https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*P59zuusexj6GssKxouxViw.png)
Ethereum users are calling for a solution to the protocol's CryptoKitties invasion.
As profiled by CoinDesk, the cat-trading game had grown so popular earlier this week that it was clogging the ethereum network, slowing down transaction times. Now, however, congestion is reaching unprecedented levels, with a record-breaking 30,000 transactions stuck and waiting to be processed at press time.
"Can we please increase the gas limit?" pleaded one user on a Reddit thread, itself a chorus of agreement on the issue.
"Is the blockchain completely frozen?" asked another user.
Indeed, despite facilitating nearly $7 million-worth of ether trades and winning new users to the platform, the game is attracting a level of vitriol: "Fuck cats. When will they solve this problem? I have been waiting for 20 hours now," said another user on ethereum's Gitter channel.
That's not to say there aren't ways to relieve the issue, and, so far, arguably the most likely solution is increasing the network's "gas limit" – a metric that puts a cap on the number of transactions and smart contracts that can happen across the network.
Christian Reitwiessner, an Ethereum Foundation engineer and the co-founder of scaling protocol, Truebit, is one developer who agrees this approach might be an easy solution.
He told CoinDesk:
"The miners raising the block gas limit is the only short-term solution against our new feline overlords for now."
https://www.coindesk.com/cat-fight-ethereum-users-clash-cryptokitties-congestion/