Blockchain congestion is a very big problem in the cryptocurrency industry. Many networks suffer from these drawbacks on a regular basis.

In the case of EOS, such issues had not been present all that much. That situation came to change earlier today, as an airdrop quickly filled up the network capacity. 

An Airdrop Cripples the EOS Throughput

For Coinbase, the degraded performance of EOS has been apparent for a while. Over a week ago, the company noted it would take longer to process transactions. 

It now appears there is a major increase in EOS network activity. An ongoing airdrop of the EIDOS token is allegedly to blame for all of this.

To receive this airdrop, users need to send EOS to and from the EIDOS contract. As such, the number of overall network transactions has increased significantly. 

Exchanges and trading platforms supporting EIDOS have also popped up. This further increases network activity as these transactions also need to be processed. 

The EOS network relies on CPU power to increase transactions. It appears a high increase in leased CPU is active on the network to increase the number of transfers to be processed.

Unfortunately, that latter approach is backfiring somewhat. As the network is now congested, there is a limit as to how many EOS transactions can send. 

It is unclear how long the network will remain congested. 

It remains profitable to collect EIDOS at this time, thus it seems plausible this “onslaught” will continue unabated.