On December 10, Solana transactions slowed down. The founder and CIO of the crypto investment firm Cyber Capital, Justin Bons says there was a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack, and the attacker exploited design flaws.
Related: A bug in Solana library allowed to steal up to $27M in an hour
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko replied Bons, saying he didn't get any proof that there was a DDoS.1/6) Solana was DDoS attacked again yesterday
— Justin Bons (@Justin_Bons) December 10, 2021
This attack exploited fundamental design flaws which are considered features by SOL
As it sacrifices decentralization & security for speed
While ignoring the consequences of that trade off
Specifically Proof of History & Turbine:
DDoS is an attack, where bad actors flood the network with so much traffic that it stops operating as normal.
It's worth mentioning that although the speed of transactions dropped, the protocol could stay online after the exploit. Earlier, there was found a bug in the Solana Library. It could potentially allow hackers to steal up to $27 million in an hour.
Solana supporters mention the benefits of the network, such as high speed and low fees, saying that the recent issues are part of growth. Meanwhile, the opposite camp isn't that optimistic and doubts the protocol's security.
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The Solana protocol was launched in March 2020. It's one of the leading blockchains and its native coin SOL is the 5th largest cryptocurrency by market cap. At the moment, SOL trades at around $170. In the last 7 days, the price went down by around 11%.