When it comes to the different altcoins on the market, some projects tend to fare a lot better than others. This weekend, it seems the Waltonchain mainnet has come under a massive attack, Someone exploited a known bug and took advantage of it before the developers would introduce a network fix. Unfortunately, this may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
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The Waltonchain Incident
As was officially communicated on Telegram, it seems the Waltonchain main net is currently under attack by an unknown individual. Rather than just a 51% attack, it seems this individual as successfully pulled off a 99.9% attack. Most people assumed this would be impossible to achieve, but things are a bit different where this project is concerned. That is not necessarily a good trait either, by the look of things.
There are some interesting aspects regarding this project to take into account. It appears the launch of WTC’s main net has become a big hurdle, thus it is relatively easy to pull off such a massive attack. Most users are not even active on the network, as the swap from ERC20 tokens to mainnet tokens has not been completed as of yet.
The Developers Knew About the Exploit
One particular aspect regarding this incident is how the Waltonchain developers apparently knew about the security problem. While that is a good thing in terms of fixing the issue, one also has to wonder why this loophole was still accessible today. Apparently, a fix for the problem was under development, but it was unclear if and when that would be released.
It does appear this proposed network fix will be introduced at some point, albeit an official ETA has not been provided just yet. On Reddit, community members are not too happy about this turn of events, as some even call the team “incapable”. A very strong negative sentiment toward the team, although it is not entirely abnormal either, given how the development of this project has progressed so far.
What is the Motive?
Since there is no token swap or active currency on this “main net” at this time, it is unclear why anyone would attack the Waltonchain network. One plausible explanation is how someone wanted to do this simply because they can. It also casts a dark shadow over what once was a very promising project, yet ultimately missed a fair few deadlines along the way.
No Active Bug Bounty
In the cryptocurrency world, it has become common among top-tier altcoins to offer a bounty to users who discover small or critical bugs in the code. Waltonchain did not and still does not have such a program in place, The discovery of this network attack might finally change matters for the better, albeit it remains to be seen how the situation will evolve. Anything is possible at this point.
Hard Forking is the Best Option
According to a brief statement released by the team, a hard fork of the network will occur in the coming weeks. In fact, the network will be “rolled back” to the block before the attack started. The bigger question is how this will affect child chain transactions which occurred after that renowned block, as those would either need to be re-broadcasted or validated in another manner. For now, no one has an answer to that particular question.
Disclaimer: This is not trading or investment advice. The above article is for entertainment and education purposes only. Please do your own research before purchasing or investing into any cryptocurrency or digital currency.