The entire story about Krypton is a rather interesting one. Although the cryptocurrency survived a 51% attack, the team decided to switch the codebase for their blockchain. Instead of using the Ethereum chain, Krypton will now use Bitcoin.An interesting decision, considering 21,465 KR has been stolen.
What Is Krypton Up To?
It is very uncommon to see a cryptocurrency project switch from one blockchain to another. After Krypton had been attacked not once but twice in the past few weeks, the developers had a sudden change of heart. It appears as if they do not deem the Ethereum blockchain worthy anymore, and switched to Bitcoin.
During these attacks, over 21,000 KR have been stolen by the 51% attack group. There is no word on where this funds ended up or how it will be used. One thing is certain: it will not be returned to the rightful owners. Coming up with a solution to this problem is a lot easier said than done.
Interestingly enough, the Krypton team feels the exploit used to steal these coins is inherent to any Ethereum-based cryptocurrency. Although the exploit was only revealed recently, it is possible the criminals will exploit it again. In fact, the majority of Ethereum clones will be defenseless against this attack, unless they have a lot of hash power at their disposal.
“It is for this reason, Krypton has decided on the following temporary course of action to protect KR from being stolen from exchanges through a double spend: Krypton is moving KR from an Ethereum-based proof-of-work blockchain to a Bitcoin-based proof-of-stake blockchain.”
It is not the first time worrisome code exploits are found on the Ethereum blockchain. The DAO lost millions of funds due to a known bug, which was never addresses by the developers. When Ethereum Classic was split from the “main” branch, replay attacks became a new attack vector. Once again, an issue the Ethereum developers were aware of well before it even became an issue.
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