Dear Axo community,
We owe you an explanation and an apology. The recent attempt to launch the Axo liquidity seed event (LSE) encountered challenges, leading us to postpone the mainnet launch to February 6th. All token allocations, including the airdrop, private sale, and development funds, will now have their vesting start on the 6th. We understand your anticipation and apologize for the inconvenience and recent communication gaps.
What happened?
During the pre-trading phase, the part of the order matching network (OME) responsible for submitting transactions into the Cardano mempool faced unforeseen issues, particularly with transaction delays and load. The key problems were:
Heavy transaction load: An unexpected surge in transactions overwhelmed this part of the system.
Script failures: A strategy balance calculation issue in Order Matching Engine (OME) led to cascading transaction processing failures.
Configuration issues: The TTL (Time to Live) for transactions was too low, causing them to drop from the mempool.
Processing delays: the backpressure from failing transactions and heavy load led to self-fencing and delaying other matches, further worsening the situation.
Network congestion on mainnet: A higher block fill rate on the mainnet than in our tests led to longer transaction times.
Order clustering: hundreds of orders were clustered around the same price, leading to hundreds of trades being triggered at the same time and submitted onto the network, which further exaggerated the above issues.
Our response and fixes
We have taken immediate action to address these issues:
Fixed the strategy balance calculation issue in the OME.
Reconfigured self-fencing mechanism to significantly reduce processing time for transactions.
Increased the TTL for swap transactions, significantly dropping the amount of failed transactions.
Future improvements
To prevent such incidents in the future, we are implementing additional robustness improvements:
Enabling extension of the TTL upper limit for closing transactions to 24 hours.
Dynamically adjusting the number of swaps per block to reduce network congestion to the expected throughput accepted by the Cardano blockchain.
Re-submitting all dropped transactions, not just closed ones, to ensure completeness of operations.
Improving safety mechanism accuracy to avoid counting dropped transactions and transactions interacting with failing transactions (for instance, due to heavy strategy exceeding computational units) as failures in the OME, thereby significantly reducing unjust closures.
Looking forward
Revised Launch Date: February 6th
We have rescheduled the mainnet launch to February 6th to thoroughly test and integrate these improvements.
Enhanced user support
Our team is addressing user tickets to ensure everyone is ready for the mainnet launch.
Platform safety
We assure you that the platform operated safely throughout this period - no user assets were lost. Users can confidently use the platform, as there is no risk to their assets. All upcoming improvements are performance-related and aimed at preventing similar issues during the mainnet launch.
Eject feature enhancement
Our goal is to create a more intuitive and user-friendly interface for individuals experiencing stuck funds. We are committed to ensuring the release of all such funds prior to the mainnet launch.
Issues with LSE
The stuck order issue also affected the LSE algorithm, resulting in AXO on certain pairs not being sold. Only 60% of the LSE allocation has been sold, and the remainder will be returned to the treasury.
Your trust is our priority
We appreciate your patience and support. Our commitment to realizing Axo's vision - a reliable and trustworthy platform - has never been stronger. We look forward to showcasing our improvements on February 6th, confident that it marks the start of a new, more robust era for AXO.
Communication and transparency
In the coming days, expect regular updates from us. We're dedicated to keeping you informed and involved every step of the way. Your feedback and involvement are invaluable as we work together to enhance AXO's capabilities and performance.
Gratitude and Commitment
Thank you for being a part of our journey. Your trust in us fuels our commitment to building a platform that meets and exceeds your expectations. Together, we're not just building a platform; we're shaping the future of decentralized finance.
We're eager to embark on this next phase with you. Here's to a successful launch and a thriving future with Axo.
Sincerely,
The Axo team