DeFi

How a whitehat hacker helped recover $450 million – DL News

Published

7 months ago

11 July, 2024

CoinFlix Staff

How a whitehat hacker helped recover $450 million – DL News

Whitehat hacker explains how he helps recover funds stolen in DeFi hacks.
Negotiation is often the most productive approach.
But some security researchers are critical of making deals with blackhat hackers.

When hackers strike, DeFi teams often feel helpless.

Many do not want to go to the police, and identifying those responsible is becoming increasingly difficult.

There are few options left, but there is one that offers hope: negotiation.

There’s just one problem: the developers behind DeFi protocols are notoriously bad at handling such issues.

“It’s just not a skill set that exists a lot in the cryptocurrency space,” said Ogle, a pseudonymous whitehat hacker. DL News in an interview.

“A lot of people in the cryptocurrency industry are 23 years old and haven’t really done much.”

Great believer

Ogle firmly believes that negotiating with blackhat hackers is a wise approach and perhaps the only one DeFi teams can take when their projects have been scammed.

To this end, he has helped recover over $450 million through more than 40 separate hacks and exploits.

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Cryptocurrencies lost to hacks and exploits are down from their 2022 peak.

His greatest success? Having helped secure the recovery of $240 million for Euler Finance in April 2023.

Ogle’s other negotiations include July 2023 Curve financing Liquidity Pool Hacks and the month of April 2023 Emotional tip.

“I’ve been through a lot and I’ve dealt with some very difficult people, some very big egos,” he said.

Negotiating with hackers is probably not an easy thing.

Chances are they won’t be interested in talking to representatives of the projects they just mined. And even if they do, it can often be a waste of time.

When the cryptocurrency exchange KyberSwap lost $48 million Following an exploit in December, the hacker responded to negotiations by demanding control of the protocol, its founding company and all of its assets, in exchange for the return of user funds.

Still, Ogle said negotiating is better than doing nothing, which is usually the harsh reality after a hack.

A losing position

When a DeFi protocol gets hacked, it’s all hands on deck.

Behind closed doors, teams of crypto security experts form online war rooms—places to share information, strategize, and figure out the best way to recover stolen assets.

“I tend to get drawn into these rooms from time to time,” Ogle said.

Hacked DeFi projects almost always start from a losing position, something hackers know very well.

Many projects don’t want to involve law enforcement in the investigation. They believe that authorities will probably never catch the culprit. They may not even have the resources to do so.

Another concern is the perception that law enforcement has a poor understanding of cryptocurrencies.

“There’s not much point in tracking down an address or a person if you’re not willing to involve law enforcement,” Ogle said.

Instead, most projects look for a way to get the hacker to return the funds as soon as they have made them, which is what Ogle specializes in.

A credible threat

Ogle’s journey into hack recovery began in 2021 with a little-known DeFi protocol called StableMagnet.

The creators of the protocol took advantage of a oddity on how code is stored on blockchains to steal $27 million from users.

But the creators of StableMagnet made mistakes. This allowed Ogle to follow them as they fled Hong Kong to Manchester, England.

After Ogle had taken all the necessary steps, he passed the information on to the local police who stopped authors.

Tracking hackers is difficult and time consuming. There is no guarantee of success.

But, Ogle said, he only had to track down the hackers once to show it was possible.

“We have an example of people actually being arrested, which didn’t exist at that time,” Ogle said.

In other words, StableMagnet’s arrests could be used as a threat.

“The threat was, ‘Hey, listen, I’m involved in this. I’ve had people arrested before. You should be scared. So if you’re scared, then let’s make a deal.’

The agreement

Hacking and programming have always been Ogle’s hobbies. But he also studied business in college and has started and sold tech companies in Silicon Valley and New York.

It’s the negotiation skills Ogle has honed over his professional career that he relies on most in the war room.

The deal Ogle is trying to make with the hackers is that they return 90% of the stolen funds and keep 10%. In exchange, Ogle and the other security researchers involved promise to stop any attempts to track down the hacker.

Some security researchers criticize such deals, saying that the principle of letting hackers walk away with 10% only encourages them.

Ogle sees things differently.

“When you’re dealing with ordinary people who have lost everything, none of them really care about the principle: they want their money back,” he said.

Detect hackers

Ogle’s negotiation skills were put to the test in April 2023, when he helped secure $240 million for DeFi lending protocol Euler Finance.

“They worked on it for a while, but they had some difficulties with the recovery part. So after a few weeks, they called me to help them,” he said.

Ogle’s tactic worked.

Euler’s hacker, who said DL News This is an Argentinian named Federico Jaime, who returned all the stolen funds, minus $2 million that he sent via Tornado Cash, and another $200,000 that he sent to North Korean hackers Lazarus Group.

“For hackers just starting out: don’t be stupid, don’t steal, do bounties, etc.,” Jaime said after returning the funds.

“You have to determine what type of person you’re dealing with,” Ogle said.

“If it’s an opportunistic thief who just picked up a wallet off the ground as he walked past, that’s different from someone planning a burglary, right?”

Tim Craig is a DeFi correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tim@dlnews.com.

Fuente

DeFi

If You Missed BONK and PEPE This Year, This Viral New Crypto Might Be Your Salvation

Published

6 months ago

29 July, 2024

CoinFlix Staff

If You Missed BONK and PEPE This Year, This Viral New Crypto Might Be Your Salvation

Bonk and Pepe appear set to net new investors 10x to 100x returns over the next 12 months. However, cryptocurrencies in the DeFi play-to-earn gaming sector could offer even greater returns. As August approaches, Rollblock is emerging as a standout DeFi play-to-earn gem with the potential to 100x-1000x gains in the fourth quarter and beyond.

The project features an innovative revenue sharing model and exceptional accessibility, attracting players and investors. Additionally, Rollblock’s extensive game library of over 150 titles and enhanced sports betting are further driving excitement for the platform. Cryptocurrency analysts are expecting a sudden surge in demand. 800% a push for Rollblock from the beginning of September.

Bonk remains strong despite market fluctuations

While most well-known cryptocurrencies struggled throughout July, Bonk remained strong. As one of the highest-grossing meme cryptocurrencies of 2024, Bonk rose over 24% in July, while most cryptocurrencies experienced negative fluctuations.

Investors looking to add a relatively safe memecoin to their portfolio should consider Bonk. While Bonk is unlikely to generate explosive gains of 250x to 1,000x from here on out, Bonk could still theoretically provide returns in the 20x to 100x range.

Pepe should see a big rise in the next bull run

Alongside Bonk, Pepe has yet to go through a bull run. This means that there are still substantial gains to be made from Pepe over the next 12 months.

Pepe is down 4% in 30 days, but that shouldn’t worry Pepe investors in 2024. Experts believe Pepe’s best days are still ahead, with crypto analysts predicting a 10x to 50x surge in the next election cycle around November.

In the long term, Pepe could surpass the 100x mark for today’s investors. However, Pepe is a memecoin, and one should exercise caution when investing in purely speculative assets that have no utility.

Rollblock’s Unprecedented Hype Potential Could Push It Past 100x Valuation in Q4

Rollblock is a GambleFi Play-to-Earn token that integrates centralized and decentralized gambling on a single platform. By allowing players to earn rewards through active participation and gameplay, the platform creates a compelling incentive structure that appeals to both casual and competitive players.

With its cutting-edge blockchain technology, Rollblock offers top-notch security that keeps bets and transactions on the platform secure. The platform’s lack of KYC mandates appeals to both users who value anonymity and security.

Rollblock’s revenue sharing model, which allocates up to 30% of casino revenue to RBLK token holders, is a major draw for investors. The model involves burning half of the repurchased tokens and distributing the other half to stakers, increasing the token’s value and encouraging long-term investment.

The platform is also constantly evolving thanks to user feedback which has enabled updates such as the upcoming sports betting feature within the platform’s casino. This addition will complement Rollblock’s extensive game library of over 150 titles, ranging from traditional poker to innovative blockchain-based games.

RBLK is expected to emerge as one of the leading DeFi tokens in 2024. With a price of $0.0172 with impressive growth potential and over 140 million tokens sold recently, Rollblock is on track to enter the top 100 cryptocurrencies by Q4, making today a lucrative time to buy RBLK tokens.

Discover the exciting opportunities of the Rollblock (RBLK) presale today!

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DeFi

Cryptocurrency sector is experiencing ‘most misjudged moment’ since 2020, says venture capitalist Arthur Cheong

Published

6 months ago

29 July, 2024

CoinFlix Staff

Cryptocurrency sector is experiencing ‘most misjudged moment’ since 2020, says venture capitalist Arthur Cheong

Veteran cryptocurrency investor Arthur Cheong believes the digital asset sector offers long-term holders a golden opportunity.

Cheong, the founder of DeFiance Capital, tell His 171,700 followers on social media platform X indicate that he believes decentralized finance (DeFi) is hugely undervalued.

According to Cheong, DeFi projects are innovating at a rapid pace and leaving traditional financial (TradFi) companies in the dust.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited about the risk/reward and potential upside of DeFi. This is probably the most misjudged moment since the pre-DeFi summer of 2020, with extremely promising prospects.

I see opportunities not only in OG (original) DeFi, but also in some newer projects that are evolving rapidly and growing at a pace that fintech startups will do anything to match.

The veteran investor also believes that crypto is now here to stay following recent launch from the Ethereum spot market (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) last week.

“Overall, the floodgates are open and there is no turning back. TradFi asset managers will continue to launch new crypto products because, guess what: there is huge demand for them!”

I expect them to launch actively managed crypto ETFs [in the] coming years. ”

Earlier this month, Cheong laid that it might be a bad strategy for cryptocurrencies to seek mass adoption, believing that digital assets are designed to disrupt several key financial sectors.

“I think we should accept that cryptocurrencies may not be suited for mass adoption like Web2, but rather are optimized for some narrow but very high-impact use cases like stateless global money, cross-border payments, and decentralized finance.

Chasing mass adoption of normies may be chasing the wrong Grail from the start.

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