"Code is Law" Dead? The Ultimate Paradox of Blockchain Seen from the $160 Million Frozen by Sui
Sui's "On-Chain Strong Enforcement": A Dangerous Industry Precedent
In May 2025, Sui ecosystem DEX Cetus suffered a hacker attack, losing $220 million, but the subsequent developments were even more shocking—Sui validation nodes froze funds through a "Deny List" and then enforced asset recovery via on-chain voting. This operation seemed to protect users but actually undermined the core principle of blockchain: immutability.
Technical Truth: Highly Centralized "Emergency Switch"
Sui's "Freeze-Recovery" mechanism relies on two major designs:
Deny List: Validation nodes can unilaterally freeze addresses, requiring coordination with the foundation (highly centralized);
Aliasing Patch: Bypasses hacker signatures through protocol upgrades to directly transfer assets (the code can be modified).
Compared to Bitcoin or Ethereum's hard forks requiring community consensus splits, Sui's "Precise Intervention" preserves chain continuity but sacrifices censorship resistance.
Industry Paradox: When "Compliance" Devours "Decentralization"
The Sui incident exposed deep contradictions in Web3:
Regulatory Demand vs User Sovereignty: The decline of consortium chains proves that purely catering to regulatory toolchains will ultimately be discarded;
Efficiency First vs Faith First: Sui's rapid freeze resembles traditional banking, but the ultimate value of blockchain lies in its "inability to be arbitrarily altered."
Soul-Searching Question: What kind of chain do we really need?
If "On-Chain Democracy" turns into violent voting by coin holders (e.g., 90.9% of validators can reclaim assets), the future may witness:
Producer Monopoly: Whales control governance rights;
Moral Hazard: Today against hackers, tomorrow possibly against political opponents.
As Bitcoin developer Jameson Lopp said: "Blockchain is not incapable of evil, but it chooses not to do evil." Sui's compromise may win short-term applause but could lose the soul of the industry.
