Ethereum · CryptoSlate
Faltered Ethereum ICO from 2016 just unlocked 1,003 ETH by exploiting itself
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 2 sources. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
✓ KHAO Verified
A white-hat researcher's recovery of 1,003.62 ETH from a failed 2016 Ethereum ICO has turned an old smart contract flaw into a reminder that Ethereum's earliest technical decisions can remain live for nearly a decade.
Key facts
- In 2017, Parity Technologies' multisig library self-destruct incident blocked 513,774.16 ETH across 587 wallets
- The ICO began on Aug. 29, 2016, ended on Oct. 28, 2016, and failed to meet its funding goal
- Before Solidity 0.8.0, arithmetic wrapped on overflow unless developers added their own checks
- A white-hat researcher's recovery of 1,003.62 ETH from a failed 2016 Ethereum ICO has turned an old smart contract flaw into a reminder that Ethereum's earliest technical decisions can remain live
Summary
01 A whitehat helped unlock 1,003.62 ETH from HongCoin's 2016 ICO by using its old multisig path. 02 The recovery matters because 48 investors can now claim funds that had been trapped for nine years. 03 But the fix depended on the original multisig, so the method may not work for most other dormant contracts. The researcher, known as 0xFlorent, said he unlocked the ETH from the HongCoin contract after the funds had been trapped for nine years.