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Earlier this week, as reported by CCN , a bug in Ethereum's Parity software was discovered, As a result, hundreds of millions of dollars were frozen at Ether.
Initially, many speculative reports were made on social media, to which the Gender Development Team responded:
"Update: To the best of our knowledge, the funds are frozen and can not be moved anywhere." The total social media of the circulating ETH is speculative. "
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The parity team makes public its release
On November 8, the Parity Development Team issued an official statement regarding the bug as a critical security alert, announcing that large sums Aether users store "assets in a multi-sig wallet created in Parity Wallet that was deployed after July 20" have been frozen and can not be moved.
"We deeply regret that yesterday's incident caused a lot of stress and confusion among our users and the community as a whole, especially with all the speculation surrounding the problem. to study the situation and explore all the possible implications and solutions Blockchain and associated technologies are an avant-garde domain of computing, "the statement added.
While estimates of the amount of frozen funds in multi-sig portfolios remain uncertain, cryptocurrency analysts speculated that the amount would be in the range of $ 150-280 million.
What was the bug?
A user, who claimed to be a "beginner" in the cryptocurrency industry, discovered a serious flaw in parity because the user was taking control of a clever contract containing highly sensitive information including transaction instructions. portfolios. The problem occurred when the user declared himself the owner of the smart contract and deactivated it shortly thereafter, thus preventing the transfer or access of the funds.
Patrick McCorry, a cryptocurrency researcher at University College London, told Fortune in an interview that the only method of restoring the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been frozen in portfolios multi-sig is to perform a hard fork. reverse the incident.
"The only way to" reactivate "the smart contract is to perform a" hard fork "that reverses the work," said McCorry.
Tuur Demeester, a prominent bitcoin investor and analyst, revealed that $ 90 million in Ether's initial offer of Gavin Wood's pieces were also frozen, and that the bug was affecting projects commercial.
https://twitter.com/TuurDemeester/status/927906221692157953
At this point, it's hard to justify parity as a bug or vulnerability in the Ethereum software because Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has always advocated development and deployment Portfolio contracts simpler and safer. Upon the disclosure of the bug, Buterin commended the developers who were actively working to provide a secure infrastructure to Ether users.
I am deliberately refraining from comment on wallet issues, except to express strong support for those working hard on writing simpler, safer wallet contracts or auditing and formally verifying security of existing ones.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 8, 2017
Where is the Ethereum?
Previously, even until the end of 2016, the Ethereum network had made four consecutive forks to resolve memory failures and bugs in the Ethereum software. Optimistically, none of the frozen funds have been stolen, and all funds will likely be restored in the coming weeks. It is important to understand that vulnerabilities can be corrected with updates and that rapid recovery will allow the Ethereum network to become more resilient to such vulnerabilities in the future.
For Parity and the Ethereum Foundation, it is essential to react quickly and accordingly to the flaw found in the Parity software, and provide a hard fork solution for inverting the gel of large amounts of Ether.