Poly Network has announced via its “Latest Updates” blog post that it has offered the hacker behind the $610 million attack a position as the project’s Chief Security Advisor.
The hacker, who is being called “Mr. White Hat” by the Poly Network team, would also receive a $500,000 reward as part of the network’s bug bounty program.
Whoever was behind the hack had previously refused the offer by stating he would consider offering it to the technical community, but Poly’s team will still transfer the bounty to the wallet provided by Mr. White Hat.
The offer and reward come as part of Poly Network’s decision not to hold Mr. White Hat legally responsible for the attack, alleging they are, “confident that Mr. White Hat will promptly return full control of the assets to Poly Network and its users.”
In fact, the team says they are nothing but grateful for the hacker’s “outstanding contributions” to the security of the network, claiming that the clash between both parties after the attack was just the result of poor communication channels.
“We now understand Mr. White Hat’s vision for Defi and the crypto world, which is in line with Poly Network’s ambitions from the very beginning — to provide interoperability for ledgers in Web 3.0.,” the blog post said.
Mr. White Hat and Poly Network Are Now Working Together
The Chief Security Advisor position offer comes also as the result of Mr. White Hat’s participation in the development of the second phase of the network “Mainnet Upgrade”, with the team providing the hacker with daily updates.
The concerns about the security of the network shared by the hacker are a matter of public concern, which has allowed the Poly team to cooperate with different organizations to improve the overall security infrastructure of the network over the next months.
Security concerns were cited by Mr. White Hat as some of the reasons why the funds siphoned from the network would not be returned immediately.
In one of the notes used to communicate, the hacker stated:
“When spotting the bug, I had a mixed feeling. Ask yourself what to do had you facing so much fortune. Asking the project team politely so that they can fix it? Anyone could be the traitor given one billion! I can trust nobody!”
While Poly Network opted to believe Mr. White Hat’s claims about the intentions behind the attacks, many cybersecurity experts believe the decision to return the funds was the result of the difficulty laundering them would imply.
The Biggest Crypto Theft in History
The attack on Poly Network took place back on August 10th of this year, becoming the largest theft in the history of cryptocurrency with $600 million worth of cryptocurrency being siphoned from the platform.
The hacker used notes included in transactions involving the stolen funds to communicate with the Poly team and conduct an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) to give their version of the story.
In the notes, it was claimed that the stolen fund would be returned and that the project was saved by that attack.
The hacker then started to return the funds, with $258 million worth of crypto being returned by August 12th.
While this was seen by many as a confirmation of the hacker’s good motives, Elliptic’s Chief Scientist Tom Robinson shared his belief that the return was the result of the difficulty in laundering the money.
“I think this demonstrates that even if you can steal crypto-assets, laundering them and cashing out is extremely difficult, due to the transparency of the blockchain and the use of blockchain analytics, ”Robinson said.
For now, while the original intentions of the hacker can’t be known, Poly Network’s team and users can rejoice at most of the funds being returned and the event resulting in improved security for the network.
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