Whitehat Developer Recovers $2M in ETH Stuck in HongCoin's Failed 2016 ICO Contract
By
Vince Dioquino
The bagel they save for the regulars. Don't skim, savour.
Summary
A whitehat Ethereum developer known as 0xFlorent_ helped recover over 1,000 ETH (worth ~$2 million) that had been stuck since 2016 in HongCoin's failed ICO smart contract. The contract was supposed to refund investors after the project missed its funding goal, but a bug broke the refund function, leaving the ETH frozen for nine years. The developer successfully extracted and returned the funds to the original investors.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledAn Ethereum developer helped recover more than 1,000 ETH, worth about $2 million, from a failed 2016 crypto project, returning funds that had been stuck in an old smart contract for nine years.
HongCoin's 2016 ICO contract was supposed to refund investors after the project missed its funding goal, but a bug broke the refund function and left the ETH stuck.
ICOs, or initial coin offerings, were a common way for crypto projects to raise money during Ethereum's early years.
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