• Hedera has temporarily blocked access to most of its services due to irregularities in its smart contracts.
• The project’s mainnet continues to operate, but wallets, decentralized exchanges and decentralized apps, and centralized exchanges will not be usable.
• Blockchain researcher Ignas reported that the issue is related to the decompiling process of smart contracts and affects the Hedera Token Service (HTS).
Hedera Halts Wallet and App Access
Hedera announced on March 9th that it will be temporarily blocking access to most of its services due to irregularities in its smart contracts. The project’s mainnet is still running and reaching consensus on new blocks, however wallets, decentralized exchanges and applications as well as centralized exchanges will not be available until further notice. The decision has been made “in an abundance of caution for users” according to Hedera.
Smart Contract Issues
Earlier on March 9th, Heder confirmed that they were experiencing issues with their smart contracts. Hashport also paused their services in order to assist with containing the issue. The exact nature of the issue was not revealed by Hedera but independent blockchain researcher Ignas stated it had something to do with a decompiling process affecting the Hedera Token Service (HTS). All other projects such as Pangolin Exchange, SaucerSwap, Heliswap are also at risk according to Justin Trollip from Pangolin Exchange who advised people “get [their] funds out now”.
Proxies Control
When these proxies were launched back in 2020, they were fully controlled by Hedera but later on they planed on providing control over them for council members instead. This decision has attracted a lot of criticism from users questioning the project’s commitment towards decentralization as this action suggests just a few parties have control over the network.
HBAR Price Drop
HBAR token price dropped 6.2% during 24 hours after news about possible exploit was released according to CryptoSlate data at 12:45 am UTC 10th March 2021.
Conclusion
Though there hasn’t been any confirmation yet if any funds have been lost or stolen due this exploit yet it’s best for users affected by this exploit take necessary measures required for safety of their assets until further updates are provided from hedera team itself .