How MIT Brothers Allegedly Cheated a Noxious-But-Accepted Ethereum Practice for $25M

  • Article

Name

How MIT Brothers Allegedly Cheated a Noxious-But-Accepted Ethereum Practice for $25M

Description

First came "The Bait." In an indictment, U.S. prosecutors detailed the incredibly complicated Ethereum exploit – in which attackers targeted the controversial area of "maximal extractable value," known as MEV.

Types

Article

Authors

Margaux Nijkerk

Publish date

05

Month
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16

Day
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2024

Year

12

:

00

am

Publisher

CoinDesk

Web URL

https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/05/16/how-2-brothers-allegedly-cheated-a-noxious-but-accepted-ethereum-practice-for-25m/

Referenced by

MEV, or maximal extractable value, is sometimes known as an 'invisible tax' that validators and builders can collect from users by reordering or inserting transactions in a block before they’re added to the blockchain.

Crypto

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The exploit happened thanks to a vulnerability that the brothers discovered in MEV-boost, a piece of software used by roughly 90% of the validators that run the blockchain, allowing them to see the transactions in blocks before they were officially sent off to validators.

Crypto

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Specifically, the brothers were accused of sending a 'false signature' in lieu of a valid digital signature to a crucial player in the chain known as a 'relay.' A signature is needed to reveal the contents of a proposed block of transactions – including all of the potential profits contained inside the bundle.

Crypto

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