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- TRON CEO Justin Sun confirms that TRON blockchain was successfully attacked for malicious contract activation.
- Sun confirms that data on the platform and user backgrounds were not affected by the attack.
In a series of Tweets, TRON’s CEO, Justin Sun explained the incident that stopped the TRON blockchain (TRX) for almost two hours. Initially reported by the TRON community, the blockchain suffered a successful attack on November 2, as confirmed by Sun:
Regarding the situation of the #TRON network on November 2nd: During the 4.1 version upgrade period, the #TRON Mainnet was attacked by a malicious contract on 2020.11.02 at 06:14 (HKT).
The attack occurred while the platform was going through an upgrade to version 4.1. The attacker used, according to Sun, the permissions held by the developer of a contract to initiate malicious transactions. As a result, the blockchain super representatives suspended block production. Sun recognized the role of the community in identifying the attack:
As the busiest #blockchain network in the industry, the attacker hopes to get profit from the suspension of block production. #TRON community responded immediately, locating the problem and fixing it immediately, and working with super representatives to upgrade the nodes.
TRON (TRX), the most decentralized network?
The attack was possible because the TRON blockchain uses a consensus mechanism known as Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS). Therefore, the control of block production and validation of transactions is carried out by super representatives chosen by TRX holders. Currently, the super representatives are composed of individuals close to Justin Sun, entities associated with Sun, and TRON’s CEO himself.
Although the attack was solved by updating the software of the nodes, criticism has resurfaced towards the centralization of TRON. Some users have pointed out that the incident confirms that the TRON network has a high centralization. However, TRON’s CEO expressed the opposite in his Twitter thread. According to his publications, the attack was a confirmation of decentralization in TRON. Sun said:
Withstand this large-scale attack, once again proving that the #TRON network is the decentralized network with the most resilience and attack defense capabilities in the industry!
Data on the blockchain and user’s funds were not affected by the attack, according to Sun’s report. Since the attack occurred, the price of TRON’s native token has had a negative impact on its performance. At the time of publication, TRX stands at $0.023 with losses of 5.82% in the last 24 hours. In the weekly and monthly charts, TRX records losses of 11.66% and 13.05% respectively.
