The multi-chain or kryžminė grandinė technology seems to be the new playing ground for hackers given the sheer rise. Users want to transact with other blockchains by leveraging bridges to different ecosystems. Nonetheless, several famed individuals such as Ethereum co-founder and developer Vitalikas Buterinas raised concerns about the same.
In his argument, Buterin cituota the “fundamental security limits of bridges” as the key reason for his disapproval of a cross-chain environment. Yet, here we are.
No more harmony?
Šios Harmonija blockchain network is the recent victim to have succumbed to yet another kryžminis grandinės tiltas exploit. Horizon, its cross-chain bridge to Ethereum, suffered an exploit worth nearly $100 million in ETH. The team alerted users on Twitter in a 24 June tweet that read,
1/ Harmony komanda nustatė vagystę, įvykusią šį rytą ant Horizonto tilto. 100 mln. USD. Pradėjome bendradarbiauti su nacionalinėmis institucijomis ir teismo medicinos specialistais, siekdami nustatyti kaltininką ir atgauti pavogtas lėšas.
Daugiau?
– Harmonija? (@harmonyprotocol) Birželio 23, 2022
Adresas susijęs in the thread held 85,837.251 ETH, worth approximately $100 million as of press time. The alleged address made 11 sandoriai from the bridge for various tokens. Further sent tokens to a kitoks wallet to swap for ETH on the Neiškeisti decentralized exchange (DEX), then sent ETH back to the original wallet.
Šaltinis: „Etherscan“
The Horizon Bridge facilitates token transfers between Harmony, the Ethereum network, Binance Chain, and Bitcoin. Harmony the operator of the bridge halted the bridge to avoid further damage. It said the BTC bridge and its assets have not been affected by the attack. The team further pridėta that ‘its funds and assets stored on decentralized vaults are safe at this time,’
In addition, the Harmony team cooperated with “national authorities and forensic specialists” to investigate the situation. The team explained,
„Mes taip pat pranešėme biržoms ir sustabdėme „Horizon“ tiltą, kad išvengtume tolesnių sandorių. Kol tyrimai tęsiasi, komanda dirba visa ranka. Mes informuosime visus, kai toliau tai tirsime ir gausime daugiau informacijos.
Nonetheless, the damage was done following which ONE dropped 10% over the past 24 hours- it traded at $0.024 according to CoinMarketCap.
‘Deaf ears’ on a rise
Cross-chain bridges have gathered a lot of attention in the crypto market, but mostly on the negative side. In a similar case, „Axie Infinity“’s Ronin Bridge too nukentėjo a massive (nearly) $600 million worth of hack earlier in March.
In fact, at least five such bridges suffered the same fate since mid-2021 wherein attackers were able to steal more than $1B.
Source: https://ambcrypto.com/the-a-to-z-of-harmonys-horizon-bridges-100m-hack/