Linea pledges decentralization after halting block production to stop hacker

Ethereum’s
layer-2
solution
Linea
is
promising
greater
decentralization
after
the
project’s
team
manually
halted
block
production
in
a
bid
to
censor
a
hacker’s
address.

Linea,

Ethereum‘s
zkEVM
solution
designed
to
improve
scalability
with
over
$1
billion
in
locked
value,
has
found
itself
in
hot
water
over
its
what
appears
to
be
ambiguous
decision
to
stop
the
whole
network
in
a
bid
to
censor
one
address
associated
with
a
hacker,
who
attacked
Linea-based
decentralized
exchange
Velocore
for
$7
million.

In

an
X
thread
on
Jun.
3,
the
team
behind
the
project
confirmed
the
suspension
of
block
production,
saying
“it
was
not
a
decision
we
took
lightly.”

“One
of
the
key
drivers
in
our
decision
to
pause
the
sequencer
was
that
the
hacker
had
acquired
and
was
beginning
to
sell
a
large
sum
of
tokens
into
ETH.
This
would
have
created
other
issues
in
the
ecosystem
for
users
beyond
the
liquidity
pool
draining
exploit.”

Linea

The
pause
in
block
production,
spanning
a
critical
hour
between
block
5,081,800
and
5,081,801,
allowed
Linea
to
assess
the
situation.
During
the
period,
efforts
were
made
to
engage
with
the
Velocore
team
and
coordinate
responses
to
the
vulnerability,
the
thread
reads.

The
move,
however,
raised
concerns
among
members
of
the
crypto
community,
raising
their
eye
brows
due
to
the
move
that
blocked
the
whole
network
with
over
$1.2
billion
in
value,
according
to
data
from
L2Beat.

Linea
acknowledged
that
its
current
reliance
on
centralized
technical
operations
highlights
the
need
for
ongoing
efforts
to
transition
towards
a
fully
decentralized,
censorship-resistant
network,
noting
though
that
its
core
values
are
“permissionless”
and
“censorship-resistant
environment.”

In
parallel,
both
Linea
and
Velocore
teams
have
initiated
measures
to
address
the
exploit,
including
on-chain
negotiations
and
coordination
with
centralized
exchanges
to
freeze
exploited
funds.
The
Velocore
team
has
released
a

post-mortem
on
the
exploit,
outlining
affected
pools
and
ongoing
efforts
to
compensate
affected
users.