Cyber Capital founder alleges that fatal design flaws in Binance’s BNB Chain are culpable for the hacked Binance Bridge
Cyber Capital founder and chief investment officer Justin Bones has pointed to the many controversies surrounding the Binance Bridge hack, in which attackers stole about $566 million on the BNB chain. thread on twitter,
The biting criticism by the self-styled “full-time crypto researcher” alleges that Binance has used “deceptive” design to make BNB Chain “seem decentralized to an untrained eye.”
For one, Bons notes that Binance claims to have 21 validators to secure a delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) network. However, instead of randomly scheduled verifications, validators on the BNB chain take turns adding new blocks to the chain in a predetermined order determined by the 11-member Permissions Committee.
Bons alleges that while claiming that this committee is made up of third-party validators, the entities have obvious links to Binance. He adds that the arrangement is set up to allow Binance to argue plausible deniability in court — something Binance is notorious for, per Bons. He wrote:
Using separate entities could lead to Binance’s laudable refusal to control the network in a court of law. Thus avoiding legal responsibility, something Binance is already notorious for.
Bons further highlighted other questionable features of the network, including that it is closed source, and that it has occupied a “comfortable ambiguous middle ground” by never claiming to be decentralized or outrightly admitting that it is centralized.
Binance is making frantic efforts to fix the hack
Hack 2022 has been the latest damaging event in the crypto industry. U.Today reported That hackers took advantage of a bug that compromised Binance Bridge verified evidence.
Binance has been coordinating efforts to get the situation under control. It has suspended transactions on BNB Chain while validators prepare to roll back the blockchain. Despite Whale Alert still noting large transfers of BNB tokens to the hacker(s) wallet, Binance says a portion of the stolen BNB tokens have already been frozen.
