Key facts
- Harmony will roll back its blockchain to August 11 following an exploit.
Harmony plans to roll back its blockchain to August 11 following an exploit that created forged ONE tokens, discarding over 109,000 transactions. The network stated that selective restoration of transactions would create an inconsistent chain state.
Blockchain rollbacks are controversial and can erode user trust, as they involve reversing confirmed transactions. This event highlights ongoing security challenges in the cryptocurrency space and the difficult decisions networks face after exploits.
Harmony is planning to roll back its blockchain to August 11 in response to an exploit that led to the creation of forged ONE tokens. This action will discard over 109,000 transactions confirmed after the chosen checkpoint. The network's validators will revert to blocks recorded at 11:25 pm UTC on August 11, with new blocks produced from replacement databases.
Harmony stated that selectively restoring transactions would be unsafe, as it could lead to inconsistent chain states regarding balances, contract states, and other conditions. The network reported that investigators have traced nearly all of the forged ONE tokens to specific wallets or service boundaries and are collaborating with exchanges, bridges, and law enforcement. The ONE token had a market cap of approximately $10.8 million.
This move by Harmony places it alongside Ravencoin, which is also navigating a potential blockchain reorganization following an exploit related to a consensus flaw. Mining pools controlling most of Ravencoin's hash rate had begun building a competing chain that could reverse previously confirmed transactions. Ravencoin was trading at $0.002819 with a market cap of $46.3 million.