Last night’s so-called "thoroughly defeating scalpers" Web3 ticketing platform launch was something I intended to observe for its technical implementation, but instead, I witnessed an epic "on-chain stampede accident."
The situation was absurd: tens of thousands of loyal fans rushed in to grab tickets, but due to the instantaneous massive concurrency, the mainnet gas fees soared. That wasn’t the worst part; the worst was that many technically inexperienced fans had only reserved enough for ticket purchases without accounting for gas fees, causing transactions to get stuck on the chain. By the time they frantically went to exchanges to buy ETH to cover gas, the tickets had already been snapped up by those "scientists" running scripts and not short on cash.
The final result is: scalpers not only survived but evolved into "on-chain whales," while real users were left with discarded transaction hashes, crying on Twitter.
This incident kept me reflecting all night: we keep saying we want to move Web2 business to the chain, but with the current shabby infrastructure, aside from providing new avenues for illicit activities, what else can be done?
The existing public chain architecture can handle low-frequency large transactions, but when faced with instantaneous high concurrency scenarios similar to "Double Eleven," its shortcomings are immediately revealed. This is precisely why I have recently shifted my research focus from the application layer to foundational facilities like Plasma.
To be honest, when I first opened Plasma's technical documentation, I wasn’t intimidated by the high-sounding terms; rather, I was attracted by its "pragmatic to the point of being dull" product logic. These people clearly saw through the essence of the ticketing accident—it's not that the business model doesn't work; it's that the path is wrong.
Let’s review: if last night's ticket rush had taken place on the Plasma network, how would the script be rewritten?
First, the "gas threshold" that leaves fans in despair will disappear.
In Plasma's design philosophy, there’s a core mechanism called Stablecoin-First Gas. This thing is tailor-made for commercial applications. In its network, users don’t need to hold XPL (native token) or ETH, which are volatile assets, to pay transaction fees. Want to buy a ticket? Sure, just pay with the USDT in your wallet.
Further, with its built-in Paymaster protocol, ticket vendors can boldly say: "I will cover today’s gas fees." What users see is a purely "click-buy-issue" process, where the inhumane steps of "signing, authorizing, adjusting gas" are invisibly handled by the protocol layer. This is how Web3 should be—technology should be like air; you breathe it, but you don’t feel it.
Second, the "concurrency tsunami" that caused the chain to collapse.
The reason the chain crashed last night is that most of its nodes were still running the old architecture of Geth (Go Ethereum). It's like trying to pull an F1 car's engine with an old Jetta; as soon as you speed up, the chassis falls apart.
Plasma has chosen an extremely difficult yet correct path—Reth.
This is not just a simple code fork; it is the Ethereum execution layer completely rewritten in Rust. Those who understand technology know what Rust means? It means memory safety and extreme parallel processing capabilities. When faced with the impact of ticket grabbing, which can reach tens of thousands of QPS (queries per second), Reth’s architecture can ensure that nodes do not crash or drop packets. It’s like replacing a dirt road with a reinforced concrete highway; no matter how heavy the traffic, the foundation remains solid.
Furthermore, there’s the frustrating "confirmation time."
Many fans experienced the most painful moment last night, watching that spinning circle, not knowing if they had secured a ticket. Ethereum's 12-second block time feels like a "long execution" in the context of a rush.
Plasma has developed a PlasmaBFT consensus that directly reduces the confirmation time to sub-second.
The moment you click, the ownership is irreversibly confirmed on the chain. This sensation of "what you see is what you get" is not just an experiential issue; it’s a fairness issue. It eliminates the disgusting situation of "I clearly clicked first, but a later high gas transaction cut in line."
Finally, the most critical trust issue—is this ticket real?
In this era of rampant counterfeit tickets, Plasma's Bitcoin Anchoring is the hardest "anti-counterfeiting certificate."
It doesn't talk to you about DAO governance; it directly and regularly embeds the state root of the chain onto the Bitcoin network. This means that the NFT ticket you secured has its ownership record ultimately backed by the Bitcoin network. Unless someone can roll back Bitcoin, no one can take this ticket from you. This level of security for confirmation is a must for high-value tickets and RWA assets.
Last night's farce, while a small episode in the development history of Web3, starkly tells us: without solid foundations, don't take on delicate tasks.
Before the infrastructure is ready, forcibly pushing for mass adoption will only lead to mass destruction.
Plasma's current ecological niche is quite unique; it does not get involved with any "universal public chain"; it focuses on "high concurrency, low barriers, strong security," which are essential for commercial implementation.
Future ticketing, e-commerce, and even securities trading will certainly not run on those "primitive chains" that require users to calculate gas themselves and wait for confirmations. They will gravitate towards new infrastructure like Plasma, which combines the smooth experience of Web2 with the security core of Web3.
So, instead of just cursing the scalpers, let's pay attention to the technology that can truly eliminate the scalpers' survival space (arbitrage opportunities). Plasma may not be the only answer, but it is definitely the one closest to the "standard answer" currently.