The team behind Stars Arena, a protocol inspired by Friend.tech, found themselves amid controversy recently as they had to address what they referred to as a “coordinated FUD” (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) campaign. This situation arose following the discovery and subsequent patching of an exploit that allowed attackers to make off with $2,000 from the decentralized social media platform, which operates on the Avalanche blockchain. On October 5, via their official Twitter account, the Stars Arena team announced that they had successfully fixed the exploit.
Stars Arena team gives details of the issue
In their statement, they emphasized the seriousness of the situation, stating, “Don’t get this wrong, we are at war.” The incident attracted attention from the crypto community, with some individuals expressing their concerns and criticism. One pseudonymous user, “0xlilitch,” took a jab at Stars Arena, referring to its development team as “noob devs.” The attacker had identified a vulnerability in the platform’s price function, which allowed them to sell “tickets” with no cost, in exchange for Avalanche’s native token, AVAX.
However, despite the successful exploitation of this vulnerability, it turned out to be economically unviable for the attackers. The exploit inadvertently led to a significant increase in gas fees on the Avalanche network, making it far more expensive for the attackers to cash out their ill-gotten gains than they had anticipated. In essence, the attackers ended up spending more on gas fees than the $2,000 they had managed to acquire through the exploit.
Emin Gün Sirer, the CEO of Ava Labs, highlighted this aspect in a post, noting that for every $0.04 earned from the exploit, the attackers had to spend an average of $0.25 in gas fees. This unfavorable cost-to-profit ratio underscored the impracticality of the attack and demonstrated the unexpected consequences that can arise in the world of cryptocurrency exploitation. Despite the relatively ineffective nature of the exploit, members of the cryptocurrency community did not hold back their criticism of the Stars Arena team.
Crypto exploits and moves to curb the spread
One notable critic, “Foobar,” who is the pseudonymous founder and developer of Delegate, strongly condemned the platform. Foobar went so far as to suggest that Stars Arena should “delete your account and product, clown show.” Stars Arena is just one of the many applications that have emerged in the growing landscape of social finance platforms. This trend includes projects like Alpha on the Bitcoin network, Friendzy on Solana, and PostTech on Arbitrum. Friend.tech, the inspiration behind Stars Arena, continues to lead the market in terms of monthly trading volume.
With over $293 million, significantly surpassing the trading volume of the next closest competitor, PostTech, by more than $283 million. The incident involving Stars Arena serves as a reminder of the challenges and risks associated with the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency space. While blockchain technology offers numerous advantages, including transparency and security, it is not immune to vulnerabilities and attacks. The Stars Arena team’s swift response in addressing the exploit demonstrates the importance of vigilance and continuous development in the crypto world.
The Stars Arena team confronted a security breach that allowed attackers to siphon off $2,000 from their Avalanche-based decentralized social media platform. Despite the attackers’ success, the impracticality of the exploit became evident due to soaring gas fees on the Avalanche network. This incident highlights the complexities and risks inherent in the cryptocurrency space and underscores the need for proactive security measures and community vigilance.