A hacker stole more than $50 million of digital money from a virtual currency experimental project known as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).
It was the most successful crowdfunding venture ever.
According to reports, it took a third of the company's money, but also the hopes and dreams of thousands of participants who wanted to prove the safety and security of digital currencies.
After all, this end of the project is likely, the project had raised $160 million in the form of Ether, an alternative solution for the digital currency Bitcoin.
Ωστόσο, οι επιστήμονες υπολογιστών που συμμετείχαν στο έργο είχαν ως στόχο να “τσιμπούν” τον κώδικα που στηρίζει το Ether με έναν τρόπο που θα ανακτήσει τα χρήματα.
“Αυτό είναι ένα από τα εφιαλτικά σενάρια που όλοι ήταν ανήσυχοι : κάποιος να εκμετάλλευση μια αδυναμία στον κώδικα του DAO για να αδειάσει ένα μεγάλο χρηματικό ποσό.”
Είπε ο Emin Gün Sirer, καθηγητής της επιστήμης των υπολογιστών στο Cornell ο οποίος συν-έγραψε ένα χαρτί επισημαίνοντας τα προβλήματα με το έργο.
This incident reminded everyone how code can be equally vulnerable to human greed and mistakes, like paper accounts.
The project was funded by investors worldwide using Ether, which has become popular in the past year. But in May, computer scientists flagged several vulnerable points in its code.
“The DAO is under attack,” Griff Green wrote in a chat channel for the project.
The money that the hacker transferred seemed to have frozen on Friday.
The developers working on the Ethereum network, which hosts Ether, were discussing whether they should make a one‑time change to the code to recover money.
“The power of blockchain technology is that it is universal, a statement of truth,”
wrote on Friday Bruce Fenton, a member of the board of the Bitcoin Foundation.
“This manifesto is as good as its resistance to censorship, change, and the demands for attack.”
