Nomad bridge was hacked and $190M was drained/stolen earlier this week. On DeFi, a bridge is a smart contract where people can send money from one chain (say Ethereum) to another (say Polkadot). Historically, bridges have been targets of the DeFi hackers since these bridge smart contracts hold a lot of users’ deposits. $100M+ has been stolen for each of the big hacks. Notably, the Ronin network that powers the popular play-to-earn game Axie Infinity lost $600M+(!!!) and Wormhole that serves as the main bridge between Ethereum and Solana lost $326M. Just 6 weeks ago, $100M was stolen from the Harmony bridge. Now, DeFi got another $190M bridge hack. This is mind blowing.
I have many questions. First, why do people put so much money into these crypto projects that seem so amateur and unproven? There’s really no recourse to get the money back if hacked. Second, how did people get so much money in the first place? If you just look at the top 10 hacks as illustrated above, that’s almost $3B lost. Third, why are people still pumping DeFi and cryptos after retail users suffered these losses? Security is a primary concern for DeFi and a lot of financial loss has been incurred. If you ask me, I don’t think DeFi is suitable for non-technical folks. People need to know how things work and have some basic understanding of cyber security. Otherwise, it’s basically flying blind with no wings.
Yet we have so many crypto pumpers out there such as SBF pumping Solana after his company Alameda Research invested as part of the hundreds of millions funding round into Solana just last summer. (No conflict, no interest??!!!) Right after his Solana PR piece was out, 8000+ Solana wallets’ funds were emptied by a security vulnerability caused by a wallet software. Users lost $5M+. But SBF’s attitude is “Oh $5M is nothing compared to the $190M hack and it’s not Solana blockchain’s fault. It’s some shitty software people use.” Well, that is a very convincing argument that $SOL is underrated and retail users should embrace it. Frankly, I am disgusted. But what can I do? I just hope that people don’t get hurt over and over again in these crypto schemes.