A hacker behind one of the largest ever heists of cryptocurrency has returned half the money to the company from which they stole it.
$600m (£433m) was stolen in a range of cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Bitcoin from the Poly Network, a company that operates in the crypto field. However, within a short time, they had returned half the stolen assets.
In a bizarre move, the company has now reached out to the thief and told them they will pay $500,000 to the hacker if they return the rest of the loot.
The Poly Network is suggesting the hacker is, in fact, a 'white hat' hacker, a hacker that carries out misdeeds in order to find security flaws in a system, as opposed to a black-hat hacker who carries out hacks for their own benefit.
In a statement by the hacker left in the blockchain, they said:
"I know it hurts when people are attacked, but shouldn't they learn something from those hacks?"
Whether the hacker really is a white-hat, or whether the Poly network is just trying to give the hacker an excuse to come forward, and so the company can save face, is unclear at the moment.
The $600 million Poly Network hacker has published part one of a "Q&A":#polynetworkhack pic.twitter.com/3y1JQnHe50
— Tom Robinson (@tomrobin) August 11, 2021
Authorities in the United States have, however, warned that it is not the company's choice as to whether to prosecute an individual for a theft.
Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, a London-based blockchain analytics and compliance firm, told the BBC:
"Either they just intended to commit theft and steal the assets, or they were acting like a white hat hacker to expose a bug, to help Poly Network make themselves more strong and secure. I wonder whether this hacker stole the funds, realised how much publicity and attention they were getting, realised wherever they moved the funds they would be watched, and decided to give it back."
He added:
"The blockchain itself has operated here flawlessly, but the problem is on blockchains like Ethereum, you can write your own smart contracts. Various services have started offering this, including Poly Network. So whenever a human being writes code, there's a chance they will make a mistake."
Even if the hacker was to keep the money, they will find it incredibly difficult to turn such a vast sum of cryptocurrency into cold hard cash without being caught.
[h/t: Futurism]
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