While you may think your crypto currencies are the safest thing out there ... read this report below that was in my morning brew!
Jon
The details: The hack drained roughly $617 million worth of ether and USDC from the Ronin Network—a “layer 2” solution (layer 1 being the Ethereum blockchain) that conducts crypto transactions for Axie Infinity. Because Ronin is off-chain, its transactions are faster, cheaper, and less energy intensive than on-chain ones. But there’s a trade-off: Ronin is less secure than the blockchain it supports.
In this case, hacker(s) took control of enough of the “nodes” that greenlight transactions on Ronin to funnel money into their own ethereum wallet. According to a post from Ronin yesterday, most of the stolen funds are still sitting in that wallet, and Ronin is working 25/7 with regulators to get them back.
Zoom out: This hack eclipses the theft of $611 million from decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Poly Network that occurred in August. One of blockchain technology’s big promises is enhanced security, but so far its track record is muddier than a Dirty Jobs episode.—JW