Ether Shrimp Farm

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Ether Shrimp Farm

Ether Shrimp Farm was a popular blockchain game for a brief period in 2018. Users could purchase shrimp eggs, which grew exponentially into more eggs. The problem was that the supply of eggs grew faster than the eggs of later players and interest in purchasing them, causing a sort of hyperinflationary spiral that eventually collapsed the market liquidity entirely.

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

About Ether Shrimp Farm

"Farm shrimp on the blockchain and sell them for Eth!"

"Claim your free shrimp! To do this, press the “Get Free Shrimp!” button and confirm on Metamask. It’ll only cost you some gas!" "Your shrimp will lay eggs. You can choose to either hatch them, or sell them."

"Hatching your eggs will turn your eggs into more shrimp (1 shrimp per egg). You can also buy eggs using Ethereum by putting in the amount of ETH you want to spend at the bottom of the page and clicking the “Buy” button. This will give a huge boost to how quickly your shrimp farm will grow!"

"Know people who might be interested in this blooming career path? Use your referral link at the bottom of the page to gain an additional 20% of shrimp based on their hatches!"

"Let’s take a look at one of the scams that took place before the De-Fi hype took off. Ether Shrimp Farm was one of the first yield-farming scams that cost many speculators everything that they had invested."

"The users’ objective was to hatch and sell as many shrimp as possible, with the endgame being that they would get to sell those eggs for ETH. In this case, Ether Shrimp Farm’s contract address was displayed on both the Ether Shrimp homepage and DappRadar."

"The fully automated SS Shrimpalicious has found the motherlode. The rarest shrimp imaginable, worth enough to collapse the market entirely (The pot winner gets all Eth in the contract, and the game ends)."

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - Ether Shrimp Farm

Date	Event	Description
May 25th, 2018	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost is unknown.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.