Decentralization

A cryptocurrency exchange, Bybit was hacked due to a human error by its CEO. A significant amount of 1.5 billion dollars was stolen by the Lazarus group, a band of North Korean hackers. The wallets holding the stolen cryptocurrencies are indeed visible on the Ethereum blockchain. However, it is impossible for anyone to recover these funds. No institution, no government, not even the CIA and the FBI, can access these funds unless the thieves decide to return them. All that is left is to monitor the wallets while waiting for their holders to also make a mistake. Thanks to an engineering feat, it is now possible to know who is hiding behind an address on the blockchain. How then to stop these hackers since they are protected by North Korea?

The decentralization we often boast about can also prove to be ambiguous.

Let’s protect our digital assets by enabling two-factor authentication and using a reliable VPN. Let’s avoid revealing the secret code of our wallet to anyone, and meticulously verify the addresses we interact with.