Ethereum Developer Counters Idea Of Blockchain Rollback Amid Bybit Hack

Ethereum Foundation lead developer Tim Beiko has dismissed the idea of an Ethereum blockchain rollback following the Bybit crypto exchange hack. In a detailed post on X, Beiko explained why such a proposal is impractical and unfeasible.

Ethereum Network Too Interconnected For A Rollback, Beiko Says 

On February 21, Dubai-based exchange Bybit suffered the largest crypto hack in history as bad actors carted away $1.4 billion in mantle-staked ETH (mETH) and other ERC-20 tokens by comprising one of the exchange’s cold wallet. As expected, this development has rocked the industry drawing a discourse on various recovery channels.

One of these channels being discussed is the potential rollback of the Ethereum network. As the name implies, blockchain rollback is the process of reverting blockchain to a previous state, effectively undoing recent transactions.

According to Tim Beiko, the idea of a blockchain rollback can be traced to a Bitcoin network incident in 2010 where Satoshi Nakamoto deployed a software patch to invalidate a transaction where a user minted 146 billion BTC. However, the software developer notes that Bitcoin mining efforts were minimal at this time with the premier cryptocurrency trading around $0.07.

Beiko also references a similar incident on the Ethereum network in 2016, where a particular dAPP known as the TheDAO which held an estimated 15% of ETH supply came under the control of a hacker. Fortunately, the developers of TheDAO had implemented a failsafe that forcibly froze all withdrawals on the dAPP for a month in the case of a hack.

This time allowed Ethereum developers to effect a change to the blockchain thereby updating TheDAO’s database manually in an “irregular state change.” Notably, this decision caused much division in the ETH community eventually resulting in the hardfork that created the Ethereum Classic chain.

In the context of the Bybit hack, Beiko explains that a blockchain rollback would be virtually impossible due to multiple factors. Firstly, the Ethereum network detects no broken protocol rules as the hack occurred through a compromised multi-sig wallet interface where the custodian signed off on a falsely displayed transaction resulting in the asset loss.

Furthermore, the ETH developer notes that the hacker has begun transferring the stolen funds, unlike the TheDAO case. Therefore, any attempt at a rollback would result in a continuous cat-and-mouse game. Finally, the Ethereum network is too developed and interconnected with the presence of multiple bridges and DeFi protocols, therefore another “irregular state change” could cause a catastrophic ripple effect.

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At the time of writing, ETH trades at $2,754 reflecting a 2.77% gain in the past day.