Axie Infinity hack, over half a billion dollars stolen, human error behind the hack.
Today, we’ve all heard about games that are called pay-to-win, games in which developers introduce paid features that give certain advantages to paying players and that create a certain amount of imbalance. Recently, a new model has appeared called play-to-earn. These games use cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Players can “invest” in the game, play, and the more they play, the more they earn cryptocurrencies, which they can exchange for fiat currency if they wish. Main targets for hackers.
Axie Infinity hacked, over half a billion dollars stolen
One of the most popular games in this genre is Axie Infinity. Unfortunately, it turns out that the platform was hacked and the hackers managed to steal the amount of 173,600 ETH, which at the current value of ETH is just over $600 million. This makes this cryptocurrency theft one of the largest to date.
Looks like human error played a big role in this hack. Here’s what we know. In 2021, the game’s developers asked Axie DAO to help distribute free transactions to their players because they couldn’t handle the load themselves. Unfortunately, after this assistance period ended, the permit list was not revoked.
Human error in the origin of the hack
This allowed the hackers to take control of four verification nodes on the Ronin network, a sidechain used to grant players access to the Ethereum blockchain and generate withdrawal requests. And only when the user tried to withdraw 5000 ETH, the developers realized that they had been hacked.
According to the developers of the game, “ETH and USDC deposits on Ronin have been exempted from the bridge contract. We work with the authorities, scientific crypto experts and our investors to ensure that user funds are not lost. This is our top priority right now.”