ICYMI, the ’90s are back. Your favorite Nicktoons are on TV. Rugrats and Hey Arnold! characters are now NFTs. And even though we’re not using dial-up anymore, some online kinks can still happen when the demand is at an unprecedented level.
We started the drop off strong with our Pass Holder Whitelist Sale where eligible users received whitelist codes based on how many RECUR Passes they held during the snapshot a few days before. We saw excitement flood Twitter and Discord as Pass Holders began collecting their TV Packs.
After the Whitelist Sale wrapped up earlier today, the Pass Holder Early Access Sale began. We saw thousands of Pass Holders come through and purchase their TV Packs, causing it to sell out in 3 minutes! As Pass Holders revealed their newly secured PFPs, our team was preparing to move into the Public Sale phase.
When the clock struck 2pm ET for the Public Sale, we saw tens of thousands of unique users trying to purchase packs all at once. Sounds bullish, right? In reality, that created unprecedented demand, over 10x the site load we experienced in our last live drop. And even though we ran performance test after performance test to prepare for the anticipated heavy load during the drop, there’s nothing quite like the real thing — especially with our community showing up in droves today. We think through-the-roof demand is a pretty good problem to have.
Within the first minute, we received more than enough order requests to sell out but they quickly became stuck in a transaction backlog while purchases began to process. This is why many of you saw prolonged pending transactions, Coinbase Commerce loading errors, and transaction processing errors. As people continued to refresh the site and attempt new purchases, the site load was magnified which exacerbated the issues, causing the backlog to grow further and transactions to process even slower.
This is not the experience we aim to provide for RECUR drops. We fully own that and we want to make it right.
- We are going to do our largest Splat Pass giveaway yet. The first 200 users who attempted to purchase a TV Pack in the Public Sale but were unsuccessful because of site issues will receive a Splat Pass (aka a free Nickelodeon.xyz pack). In other words, these are the 200 people whose transactions were pending for the longest duration of time without succeeding.
- We will also provide special guaranteed access in RECUR’s next nostalgia-filled drop to all users who were initially charged (don’t worry, those funds will be returned/credited) but did not successfully receive NFTs in the Public Sale today. Check out the FAQs below for more information on refunds and credits.
If you fall into either of these categories, you will receive an email over the coming weeks from RECUR notifying you of next steps to receive your Splat Pass and/or special access.
So, how are we going to prevent this kind of issue moving forward?
Our first priority was finishing the drop for users, clearing out the backlog, and making the site and marketplace fully functional. Now that we have that taken care of, we’re diving deep into investigating what caused our systems to get overloaded with this level of traffic. Our platform is made up of many subsystems that come together to create the overall RECUR experience. As we investigate each subsystem to find the root issue(s) that caused the overload, we’re going to build improvements into our system and mitigate these issues from happening again in the future.
Even though there were some bumps along the way, we also had some incredible wins. Over 4,000 unique people, all with legitimate accounts, were able to purchase TV Packs without site downtime. All transactions were processed in order to maintain a fair sale throughout. Lastly, the Nickelodeon.xyz Marketplace has opened and already processed over $350,000 in volume within the first four hours and climbing quickly!
To those who experienced issues in the drop today, we sincerely apologize. And to our entire community, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your unwavering support.
We’re so glad to be here learning and building the best NFT experiences possible with you. There’s no other community we’d want to have at our side along the way. We can’t wait to make the next one even bigger and better with your support!
Frequently Asked Questions
I sent crypto to pay for a TV Pack but my order failed. What will happen to my crypto?
You will receive an equivalent USD value in your RECUR Wallet within the next day. The USD value is determined as of the time of your transaction attempt. If you don’t see the funds in your RECUR Wallet within the next three business days, please contact support.
My credit/debit card was charged but my order failed. How will I be refunded?
You may have seen a pending charge in your bank account. If it hasn’t already, the charge should be removed within the next 3–5 business days depending on your bank. If you don’t see the pending charge removed from your bank account within the next five business days, please contact support.
I added money to my RECUR Wallet for this drop but wasn’t able to successfully purchase a pack. Can I get that money back?
When you add money into your RECUR account through top up, the funds are not able to be withdrawn. You can use these funds across any RECUR experience, including the Nickelodeon.xyz Marketplace and all of our upcoming nostalgia-filled drops.
I paid with my RECUR account balance but my order failed. How do I get my funds back?
You should have already been credited in your RECUR Wallet. If you haven’t been credited and don’t see the funds in your RECUR Wallet within the next three business days, please contact support.
My RECUR account activity confirms that my purchase was completed but I don’t have the pack in my account. What should I do?
There was a backlog earlier, but you should have the pack(s) in your RECUR Collection now. If you haven’t received them and don’t see the pack(s) in your RECUR Collection within the next three business days, please contact support.
I received an error that I already had a transaction processing and couldn’t submit another request. What did this mean?
To enable as many unique users as possible to participate in the drop and prevent further site load backlogs, we only allow a single account to have one transaction processing at a time. If you had an initial transaction that was pending and tried to submit a second transaction, you would have seen this error message.
