At the start of November, news broke that a bug in the Parity network caused it to lock $280 million worth of Ether. Ether is the digital currency of the Ethereum network. The tokens belonged to multiple users who were less than ecstatic that the bug froze most of their investment.
Parity is trying to reassure customers that their funds will eventually be restored. However, two weeks after the incident there are still no signs of recovery. As expected, the investors are getting frustrated at Ethereum's inability to come up with a solution and are blaming the mismanagement of Parity wallets for their loss.
There has been a lot of heated debate in the last two weeks regarding the approach that should be employed to restore the funds. A consensus has yet to be reached. Ethereum’s development team formed a public channel on GitHub to discuss proposals to revive the lost funds in the form of smart contracts. This solution would require changes in the Ethereum's blockchain. The problem lies in the fact that Ethereum defines itself as an immutable blockchain. Therefore, by definition, changing the blockchain would be against their core principle.
The loss of tokens is a usual matter in the Ethereum network, as investors can lock their funds by sending the tokens to non-existent wallets. To combat this loss, there is a need for a way to revive ether, and to improve the existing EIP156 protocol. While this would resolve the issue of being able to send tokens to nonexistent wallets (and subsequently locking one's tokens), it would not resolve the Parity incident. The protocol, EIP156, was developed by Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum.
EIP156 only works if the owner of the token can mathematically prove that they are the owner. This technique is only applicable for the funds stuck in empty smart contracts or codeless wallets. The funds lost in the Parity accident still have code attached to them.
Currently, there isn't a perfect solution for reviving the funds lost in Parity wallets. Discussions are underway, and it will be interesting to see how the whole community will come to a joint solution for the matter.
People have also been criticizing the Parity developer, who is responsible for the whole blunder. Conspiracies have sprung up that he may try to steal the funds, but since the funds have not been gathered into a wallet, it cannot be classified as a theft and can only be considered a technical issue.
$280 million worth of Ether still stuck
Parity is trying to reassure customers that their funds will eventually be restored. However, two weeks after the incident there are still no signs of recovery. As expected, the investors are getting frustrated at Ethereum's inability to come up with a solution and are blaming the mismanagement of Parity wallets for their loss.
Published on Nov 27, 2017 15:40 By Danish Yasin