Proposal to Build BAYC’s Otherside on Immutable X Protocol Submitted

Ethereum-based layer 2 NFT scaling platform, Immutable, has submitted a proposal to the ApeCoin DAO to develop the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) metaverse project Otherside on its blockchain network.

Otherside Metaverse on Immutable X

Citing scalability, no-fee transactions, and a carbon-neutral environment, Immutable said that the move aligns with the needs of the holders of APE tokens. Following the proposal, Robbie Ferguson, Co-Founder at Immutable, remarked,

“ApeCoin is a testament to the strength of Ethereum’s community, developer network, and security. Its future should live on Layer-2 Ethereum, where its core users and community lives. We’re confident that Immutable X is the perfect solution for Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Otherside metaverse project and will commit significant resources to build it jointly with the community.”

Before ImmutableX, Ava Labs proposed Yuga Labs’ Otherside metaverse game and ApeCoin to consider rolling out the metaverse project on Avalanche subnet.

The plan involves Otherside migrating to Ethereum competitor’s subnet to “dramatically increase speed to finality while reducing gas fees, and enhance user experience.” Additionally, Avalanche also revealed that the ApeCoin community could access the $290 million incentive program dedicated to back users and development costs.

The Otherside Debacle

The much-anticipated launch of Yuga Labs’ virtual land sale sent the Ethereum network into a tailspin a month ago. The NFT mint for land on Otherside did manage to revive the DeFi sector that experienced a more than a month-long cooldown.

In fact, Otherdeeds yielded more than $300 million in primary sales alone. It also pushed NFT marketplace OpenSea to its best single all-time day of secondary trading. However, the record-breaking sale drew ample criticism from industry players as unprecedented Ethereum fees spurred chaos among the buyers.

In response, its makers – Yuga Labs – suggested that the APE ecosystem should migrate from Ethereum’s mainnet to a dedicated blockchain to minimize fees for future drops.

Even as it apologized for the episode and said it would refund gas fees for users with failed transactions, not everyone was happy with the company’s approach to the Otherside mint as well as its response to the fallout. Many pointed out that code fixes could have reduced gas fees, but the lack of a gas-optimized smart contract for minting was a major mishap.