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Comment by skinfaxi | Hacker News Reader

Why do they say it's white hat hackers?

While moving the funds, the attackers left an OP_RETURN message with the text "we are whitehats. contact us on chain" https://mempool.space/tx/c103de95817b43f2df635ec6f35ff126ca2...

Further on-chain communications:

https://mempool.space/tx/91271efcbb5ab29abfc38ae635f0644e3ba... "Please contact security@blockstream.com"

https://mempool.space/tx/bd81219691eb1e22475c5985d847fa888c3... from Blockstream, unknown PGP message

https://mempool.space/tx/3a3eac4a26395b8c2563aaf1eb8b1b77798... from attackers, "sending most back to bc1qdlld6antmv4xug242ed83q7k4rqw50cwfns38szx4qu2f4jwaxxsuhwxxr, is that ok"

https://mempool.space/tx/8a444eed65c4584f138e08ee138f61490ef... from Blockstream, PGP-signed "Yes, thank you."

https://mempool.space/tx/83825b2135dd0abac12c9dfe17f29ab81b3... from attackers, "Please fix the bug first. The chain is under risk at latest commit right now. Make sure every node is patched. Then we will transfer the money back safely after confirming the fix. The detail is as follows (encrypted using https://blockstream.com/pgp.txt)." with unknown PGP-encrypted payload

As of writing, no response from Blockstream, and funds are still controlled by the attackers.

Purported white-hat hackers. The implication is that these people are presumably describing themselves as such, but it may not actually be true.

I can imagine one’s hat changing color when faced with a pot that big…

This is funny. Is this analogous to finding a wallet on the street and returning it (in my locale: and getting a finders fee), or is this analogous to taking a wallet from a drunk sleeping person (morally dubious), contacting them the day after to return the wallet, or is it just stealing per se.

Where I live it's only theft if there is an intention to unlawfully take ownership of the good. As an example, forgetting to pay in a supermarket lies exactly on that boundary. Take a cart or hide a product and you won't get away. Try to pay, payment fails and you don't notice, walk away and get apprehended and you might convince the judge that you had no intention to unlawfully take ownership.

Well, exploits are different than sticky fingers. Those white hats could claim they raided preventatively.

> This is funny. Is this analogous to finding a wallet on the street and returning it (in my locale: and getting a finders fee), or is this analogous to taking a wallet from a drunk sleeping person (morally dubious), contacting them the day after to return the wallet, or is it just stealing per se.

Kind of in-between I'd say. You find a wallet, on a bench, next to sleeping person, and you see lots of other people eying the wallet to take for themselves. You take the wallet to prevent others from taking it essentially.

Not saying these people for sure are whitehats/grayhats, who knows until the funds are returned, but that's basically how grayhatters see themselves.

The same reason scam artists describe themselves as businessmen

Presumably to try and reduce the chance of a mass panic among their users.

What do they care if there's a panic? They have "paused the sidechain". No one can act on their panic.

Wasn't this all supposed to be decentralized? How can a foundation choose to unilaterally "pause the sidechain"?

BTC Liquid Network is not decentralized and does not purport to be. It's a federated sidechain, that is... it's a blockchain that runs alongside the Bitcoin blockchain (using a two-way peg that lock real BTC on the Bitcoin blockchain and issues an equivalent amount of Liquid BTC on the Liquid sidechain) but blocks can only be added to the Liquid Network sidechain by some of the handpicked members of the federation.

You are conflating the original BTC network and a lot of the other projects in the cryptocurrency / token / stable currency space.

Every time there was a new token that was 80% reminded or was governed by a central company, the original cryptocurrency enthusiasts cried fowl.

Most people don't read the fine print, don't read the founding white papers, and don't care about the differences between the protocols and the networks when they should.

I think it's more that the 'original cryptocurrency enthusiasts' tend to look the other way, because the more of these weird shitcoins/nfts/networks get minted, the more their numbers go up.

It's 2026. Show of hands, who here actually uses any of this, and why?

9 times out of 10 when an exchange or broker is "hacked" its been the operators of the exchange.

You have worded this like a fact, but this is your opinion.

It's just another psyop to accomplish some job by bitcoiners for bitcoiners.

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