Ronin Hack: How One of the World’s Biggest Crypto Heists Was Solved,
The burgeoning crypto realm is the new Royal Mint of Spain, and hackers are the new Professors.
Ronin, the blockchain network underlying the popular Axie Infinity online game, on March 23 in one of the biggest crypto heists to date.
Only a week later, the hack was found.
By that time, the hackers had amassed nearly $620 million, consisting of 1,73,600 Ether valued at $594.6 million and $25.5 million in US currency.
Meanwhile, the Ronin network and its related Katana Decentralized Exchange (DEX) ceased functioning.
As a result, the price of the Axie Infinity token (AXS) plummeted by over 10% before recouping losses.
And Ron, the Ronin blockchain’s native cryptocurrency, dropped by over 22%.
All About the Heist , How did they do it?
There are nine validators on the Ronin sidechain, and all deposits or withdrawals must have at least five signatures. A validator is a person who is in charge of authenticating blockchain transactions.
The hacker was able to obtain five of the nine validators’ private cryptographic keys, which was just enough to gain access to the cross-chain bridge.
Sky Mavis, a startup, is still trying to figure out what kind of attack it was. As a result, it made a statement a few days ago that may require some explanation. Aleksander Larson, co-founder and COO of Axie Infinity, tweeted, “This was a social engineering attack paired with a human error from December 2021.”
Action had been taken,
In the immediate term, the business has upped the validator barrier from five to eight, in addition to temporarily halting the Ronin bridge to avoid further attacks.
Sky Mavis also stated that they are in contact with key exchanges and are collaborating with federal agencies and blockchain startup Chainalysis to hunt out and retrieve the monies stolen.
The Situation with Cross-Chain Bridges
This isn’t the first time something has gone wrong with Ronin. For example, in February, the Wormhole bridge attack resulted in a loss of more than $300 million. A flaw in the bridge is something that many of these crypto attacks have in common.
According to blockchain research firm Chainalysis, approximately $1 billion in cryptocurrencies via blockchain bridges in seven separate events over the last year.
According to Dune Analytics, more over $21 billion is up in Ethereum bridges alone, posing a serious security risk. A blockchain bridge, also known as a cross-chain bridge, joins two blockchains together. Users can utilise the bridge to transmit crypto from one blockchain to another, for as when they have ETH but wish to spend it in AXS tokens.
Cross-chain bridges, like Layer-2 solutions, are standalone entities that are not part of any blockchain.
Bridges, on the other hand, have already established themselves as important infrastructure in a multi-chain environment where users want to effortlessly transfer their tokens from one blockchain to another.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Experts believe that secure bridges and that a decentralised bridge is safer and less subject to cyber threats.
Is it Possible to Recover Stolen Crypto?
Yes, with advanced surveillance technologies in place and increasing collaboration between players in recent years, the odds of recovery are high. One of the common misconceptions about crypto is that it is untraceable and thus appropriate for unlawful activity.
Recent examples, like as the infamous 2016 Bitfinex breach, which resulted in the recovery of $3.6 billion in stolen Bitcoin this year, show otherwise. And it’s reasonable to anticipate that committing frauds and other crimes on the blockchain will become increasingly difficult.
