Hero or criminal? The mastermind behind the USD 600 million DeFi hack wants to give everything back. More than half has already been transferred to the PolyNetwork wallets.
What do Hitler and the hacker of the DeFi protocol PolyNetwork have in common? Both like Heidegger and Blitzkrieg. Apart from that, the unknown attacker positions himself as a do-gooder. Of the cryptocurrencies worth over USD 600 million that he stole with his attack, he has now returned USD 342 million. The PolyNetwork team announced this via tweet on August 12th. Then all stolen BSC and Polygon tokens are back on wallets that are controlled by PolyNetwork. The remaining assets worth $ 268 million are all Ethereum tokens. At $ 4.6 million, the PolyNetwork Hacker has only released a fraction of the Ethereum tokens so far.
The chances that other Ethereum assets will also be returned to their rightful owners are not bad. At least if you believe the statements of the hacker, who is now putting on a white hat. After his attack, which he calls a “cool blitzkrieg”, he not only entered into negotiations with PolyNetwork, but has now also made a “confession” released, in which he explains his motivation for the DeFi hack.
Money wasn’t the motive for the PolyNetwork Hack
His motive was therefore not to enrich himself personally – at least financially. In the confession, which is in the form of a Q&A, the supposed white hat answers the question about the motive succinctly with: “for fun”. From his further remarks it is clear that a mixture of hacking ambition and altruism moved him to the act.
Few hackers understand DeFi’s security situation. Yes, you see a lot of hacks, but most of them are not very entertaining for a real hacker. A few stupid codes lead to big losses, but that’s not a challenge. It’s like fighting a teenager.
Finding the weak point of PolyNetwork was “one of the best moments of his life”. He is not transferring the stolen cryptocurrencies back out of fear, but because he planned it from the start. Towards the end of his Confession the wrongdoer or benefactor reaches into the empty phrase box of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger: “Being to death”.
I have enough money growing the crypto world. I hope my life is made up of adventure so I learn and hack anything to fight destiny. Being to death.
The perpetrator promises complete reparation
On Twitter, some victims have already thanked the PolyNetwork Hacker for returning the assets to the DeFi protocol. In the early hours of the morning, he asked the project to begin the recovery process. He transfers the remaining tokens “as soon as everyone is ready”. It can be assumed that he will receive monetary compensation from the project for uncovering the vulnerability of PolyNetwork. At least the team has promised the hacker a bounty should he return all stolen crypto assets. The communication between the hacker and PolyNetwork took place exclusively via transactions in the Ethereum blockchain. The course of the conversation can be found on the confession website as well as the details of the return of the digital stolen property. Alternatively, a detailed summary of the current situation in the form of a Google can be found at this link Document.
In his last message at the time of going to press, the hacker warns crypto newbies:
In the DeFi world, the code is law. Then who is the referee? We, the hackers, are the armed forces. If you had guns and anonymous access to billions, would you be a terrorist or the Batman? ,
so is the wording of the most recent notification from the hacker, which is in the input data this transaction hidden.