In the Ethereum network, due to high transaction fees and congestion, Layer-2 networks emerged as a proposed solution, and there seems to be ongoing turbulence within them. Accordingly, the popular Ethereum Layer-2 network Arbitrum One experienced a partial outage on December 15th, according to an alert on the network’s official status website. But why did the outage occur? Let’s examine it together.

How Did the Process Start?

According to the alert on the subject, the sequencer stopped during a significant increase in network traffic. Data provided by the Arbitrum ecosystem’s explorer, Arbiscan, shows that some blocks were produced. However, it appears that only two transactions were being processed in each block during this period.

Many Arbitrum users went to place X to join the discussions on whether the outage was caused by minting transactions. If true, this would explain the small number of transactions seen in each block. However, this possibility was not confirmed by the team.

Inscriptions are known as a type of data format preferred by some blockchain networks and usually draw attention as a cultural product emerging through images. Inscription tokens appeared in the Bitcoin ecosystem in January but have recently started to be featured in the Arbitrum network, thanks to the MemeOrdi protocol.

Official Statement on the Issue

In Arbitrum’s official Discord server, community manager Ricardo Gordon announced that the team is working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and will provide a post-mortem soon.

The Arbitrum network, especially after the airdrop event, made a significant impact in the Web3 sector. The crashing of the website opened for the airdrop due to high traffic, and users’ inability to claim the airdrop for an extended period became a topic of discussion. The Arbitrum team’s subsequent lack of action towards the network led to the ARB token price remaining stable and investors targeting the team regarding the issue.

After the airdrop event, ecosystem activities continue to decline. Especially the users who participated in the airdrop farming and are now present in different ecosystems might suggest that Arbitrum could be longing for its old days.