Hackers behind the hacking of the $190 million Nomad cross-chain protocol were offered NFT as an incentive for the return of more than 90% of the withdrawn funds.
Exclusive NFTs, which depict the white hat of the wizard, are offered by the Metagame project. Only the hacker who reimbursed the assets can issue the token, thus moving into the category of white hackers — white hat.
“If you haven’t returned the funds yet, you can do it right now! Metagame automatically checks your transaction history on the network,” the Nomad team said.
In a comment for Cointelegraph, Metagame founder Brenner Spear admitted that he “has no idea if this will push anyone to return.” According to him, the idea is part of a broader effort to encourage conscientious behavior in the industry.
The first 50 people who will reimburse Nomad funds, in addition to Whitehat NFT, will receive 100 FF tokens (the price at the time of writing is ~ $27) from the Forefront service.
Hackers hacked the cross-chain protocol on August 2.
The attackers exploited a vulnerability in the smart contract that allowed unauthorized withdrawal of funds.
Coinbase analysts found out that hundreds of imitators joined the original hackers. They copied the exploit code and used it, changing only the type and number of tokens, as well as the recipient’s address.
The Nomad team almost immediately offered them all to return 90% of the stolen funds as white hackers in order to avoid prosecution. As of August 8, the project was reimbursed about $32.6 million.
Most users negatively perceived the NFT initiative. Some have called it “comedic” and “clownish.”
“Is this what the team came up with to solve the problem? Reward a hacker with a useless NFT?” one of the commentators asked.
Metagame replied that it was their idea, and Nomad is doing “more important things”.