Ethereum’s layer-2 solution, Linea promises more decentralization after manually halting block generation to suppress a hacker’s address.
With over $1 billion in locked value, Linea, Ethereum’s zkEVM solution intended to increase scalability, has gotten into trouble for its seemingly arbitrary decision to shut down the entire network in an attempt to censor one address linked to a hacker who attacked the decentralized exchange Velocore for $7 million.
The project team acknowledged the block production halt in an X post on June 3, stating that “it was not a decision we took lightly.”
“One of the key drivers in our decision to pause the sequencer was that the hacker had acquired and was beginning to sell a large sum of tokens into ETH. This would have created other issues in the ecosystem for users beyond the liquidity pool draining exploit.”
A crucial hour was lost in block production between 5,081,800 and 5,081,801, at which time Linea was able to evaluate the problem. The thread states that attempts were made to communicate with the Velocore team and plan countermeasures for the vulnerability during that time.
According to data from L2Beat, the move that banned the entire network with a value of over $1.2 billion, however, caused alarm among members of the crypto community.
Linea acknowledged that its current reliance on centralized technical operations highlights the need for ongoing efforts to transition towards a fully decentralized, censorship-resistant network, noting though that its core values are “permissionless” and “censorship-resistant environment.”
Concurrently, the teams at Linea and Velocore have started taking action against the attack. These actions include coordinating with centralized exchanges to freeze funds that have been exploited and engaging in on-chain discussions.
A post-mortem on the exploit, including the impacted pools and the ongoing attempts to recompense affected consumers, has been made public by the Velocore team.
