- Binance and Polymarket want Polygon validators to back a hard fork moving about 70.49 million POL out of five frozen attacker addresses.
- The blocked POL is worth about $6.5 million at the October 29 spot price of $0.0924.
- The proposal goes before Polygon’s Protocol Governance Call on November 5.
Binance and Polymarket want about 70.49 million stolen POL tokens to be moved from five attacker wallets that have been frozen to wallets that they control. Polygon would have to change its software for this to take place.
They want a hard fork, which changes the network’s software and rules.
The proposal was drafted by the affected companies and published on the Polygon Community Forum by Polygon Labs’ validator support team on Nov. 4. Validators run the network and vote on such major changes.
The frozen POL tokens are worth about $6.5 million, based on POL’s Oct. 29 price of $0.0924 per token. The plan will be presented on Polygon’s Protocol Governance Call on Nov. 5 at 14:30 UTC.
A hard fork could empty the five attacker wallets
The fork would begin at a certain block number that would be chosen ahead of time. When the network hit that block, the new software would take all POL out of the five attacker wallets and add the same amount to the Polymarket and Binance recovery wallets.
There are four wallets with about 23.86 million POL left over from the Polymarket hack. The fifth is linked to Binance and has about 46.63 million POL in it.
Before the hard fork, Binance and Polymarket have to show Polygon Labs that they own the recovery wallets and confirm this in writing.
The POL tokens were stolen on Oct. 29. The companies asked the four block producers to add the attackers’ wallets to a list of blocked wallets.
Block producers only check the blocked-address list when they restart their software. This means that the software has to be restarted every time a new address is added.
The proposal stated that the attacker keeps trying to move the coins. On Oct. 30, a pending transaction offered a fee of about 219,450 POL, which was about $20,000 at the price on Oct. 29.
The hacker has also offered money to validators to help a transaction get past the block list.
Polygon governance must approve the software change
On Oct. 29, hackers broke into an outside script and attacked traders while they were logged in. As a result, Polymarket changed its international platform so that traders could only cancel orders. It reopened trading on the same day and promised users refunds.
The Binance hack is much worse compared to the Polymarket attack. Cryptopolitan reported that the exchange put the damage at about $6.3 billion, which makes it the biggest hack in the history of crypto.
The hard fork proposal authors think that about two weeks is workable to build the new software and test it on Polygon’s test network, Amoy, if the plan is approved.
The fork will only happen if Polygon governance approves it and both companies’ reports of incidents stay public and match what’s written on the blockchain.
The proposal says that the hard fork is an extreme step that “should not be reproduced commonly.”
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FAQs
How much POL is covered by the proposal?
About 70.49 million POL, worth about $6.5 million at POL's October 29 price of $0.0924.
Why can't the funds be returned without a fork?
The block list stops the coins from moving but has no way to send them back.
What has to happen before the fork goes live?
The PIP must pass Polygon governance, and the fork must be rehearsed on the Amoy testnet first.
Disclaimer. The information provided is not trading advice. Cryptopolitan.com holds no liability for any investments made based on the information provided on this page. We strongly recommend independent research and/or consultation with a qualified professional before making any investment decisions.
Randa Moses
Randa Moses is an editor and reporter at Cryptopolitan covering tech, AI, robotics, crypto, scams, and hacks. She has worked in the crypto space since 2017. She held roles at Forward Protocol, AmaZix, and Cryptosomniac. Randa holds a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Bradford.
