Hoskinson Reacts as Cardano DDoS Attack Backfires, Hacker Loses Funds

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson expresses delight as the network successfully thwarts a DDoS attack, causing the hacker to lose funds.

Yesterday, the Cardano network was the target of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack designed to overwhelm the system with spam traffic.

Raul Antonio, CTO of Fluid Token, observed that the invasion began at block 10,487,530 on the Cardano network. Each transaction in this block triggered 194 smart contracts, with the attacker filling each block with multiple transactions to pressure the network. Notably, the hacker expended 0.9 ADA per transaction.

Meanwhile, during the exploit, Phillip Disarro, the CEO of Anastasia Labs, revealed a counter-strategy to the attack. He suggested that deregistering the stake credentials used by the attacker would allow anyone to claim their 400 ADA, effectively stopping the DDoS attack.

Disarro further explained that the attacker would need another 400 ADA to restart the attack. Yet, the funds could be siphoned from them again using the same method.

Cardano DDoS Hacker Loses Fund

In a follow-up update, Disarro disclosed that the hacker suspended their assault after reading his warning call, but it was too late, and their funds were already drained. He remarked on the irony of the incident, where an attacker who presumably aimed to harm the ecosystem ended up losing funds instead.

This remarkable twist of fate sparked widespread reactions within the community. It has given Cardano proponents more reason to laud the network’s resilience. One community member commented with a breakdown of the events, further lauding the network for its ability to navigate the issue.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson responded to this commentary with a cheerful GIF, sporting a wide smile and giving the commentator a thumb up.

pic.twitter.com/VuibaSPw67

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) June 26, 2024

Significantly, the funds drained from the attacker were donated to an open-source smart contract project Anastasia Labs is working on.

It is worth noting that the Cardano network functioned as intended during the exploit with no impact on liveliness. Moreover, validators handled the transactions with ease with no stress test. Interestingly, the price of ADA even rallied amid the news of the DDoS on Cardano.