Waves blockchain founder talks about a new hack

Waves blockchain founder talks about a new hack
Waves blockchain founder Sasha Ivanov talks about a new hack
Sasha Ivanov reported a data breach that wasn't known until now but declined to assess the damage or provide details about the stolen information

Waves blockchain founder Sasha Ivanov spoke about an ecosystem hack that wasn't previously known. In an interview with DL News, Ivanov said that attackers "snuck undetected" into Waves' management software system, collected information there for six months, and then tried to extort money from him.

Waves is a Tier 1 blockchain that launched in 2016. The platform is designed to issue all sorts of crypto-assets and conduct crowdfunding campaigns. It was once called the "Russian Ethereum." In April 2022, its capitalization reached $5.6 billion.

Shortly thereafter, the system was hacked, with investors in the Vires Finance lending protocol on the Waves network losing more than $530 million.

On May 15, Ivanov said that he had restarted the Vires Finance protocol, but many investors are distrustful of the project. According to Ivanov, all the lost funds will be restored, but he has said this before, and since then his words have remained only promises.

Now he said that in December 2022 hackers wrote to him saying that they had been accessing information in the Waves system for six months. They demanded a ransom, but Ivanov refused to pay.

He did not specify the amount of financial damage and did not disclose details about the stolen information.

"It was a pretty frustrating situation. We could have suffered much, much more financial damage," Ivanov said.

He said he didn't report the hack to the Waves community because he refused to pay, given that the project "has had similar situations before." Ivanov suggested that the hacker tried to cash out the stolen funds through a centralized exchange, but declined to say which one.

Late last year, Ivanov presented an ecosystem development plan for 2023. That plan included the introduction of a new blockchain governance model, Power DAO (decentralized autonomous organization), and the launch of a stablecoin based on it, whose behavior, Ivanov said, should "remain 100% predictable in any market environment."

Waves blockchain founder talks about a new hack

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