The Internet, a global net of networks, is a remarkably complex technical system built on the creative contributions of scientists around the world from the 1950s to the present. From the early computers that were designed to stand alone, the internet has evolved gradually to what it is today but that evolution hasn’t been without its challenges and security flaws. The internet has brought us so many good things such as instant messaging that enables us to connect instantly irrespective of distance, it has helped connect producers to consumers with e-commerce and so many other benefits.
However, this innovation did not come with it’s own challenges especially in the early days, criminals soon realized that they could hide under the anonymity of the internet and commit horrible crimes such as credit card fraud, child porn, identity theft, viruses specially built for computer break-ins. Technical experts and governments responded with solutions that has helped minimize these ongoing dangers, providing anti-virus systems, filters, secure web transactions, & improved security systems. However even with all the improved security systems and features, it is still an ongoing battle with criminal elements who keeps coming up with better and better ways to beat these defense systems.
ALONG CAME CRYPTOCURRENCY
In 2008, a new form of money was invented and years later, there was no doubt that it’s the next logical step in the evolution of money, a radically new technology that allows people send money to and from anywhere in the world from the comfort of your home without having to involve any middlemen like banks in the transactions, to add icing to the cake, the transactions made with this new form of currency is cheap, fast and allows it’s users to store their own money on their computers. This currency and every other similar currency invented after it was named Cryptocurrencies.
Just as expected, it didn’t take long for criminal elements to try to exploit this new technology for their own benefit and one of the biggest instances of this was with the 2014 hack of Mt. Gox exchange that enabled the hacker to siphon roughly 750,000 BTC of customers’ funds and 100,000 BTC of the exchange’s own funds. Since that incident, there has been so many exchange hacks and literally thousands of incidents involving user wallets being compromised and funds stolen.
DeFi | THE GOLDEN GOOSE
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is an emerging financial technology based on secure distributed ledgers similar to those used by cryptocurrencies. DeFi challenges the centralized financial system by empowering individuals with means for peer-to-peer digital exchanges and DeFi eliminates the fees that banks and other financial companies charge for using such services.
The technology behind DeFi is new and complicated and sometimes has glaringly obvious loopholes that has been exploited by hackers over and over again, with each new hack incident comes a patch that fixes it and while the technology has progressively been improving, it has been an improvement that has come with so much loss. It is estimated that in 2021 alone, DeFi users lost over $10.5 billion to thefts and exploits. Below is a brief list of the top 13 and how much was lost in each from the lowest to the highest:
- Grim Finance: $30 Million
- Meerkat Finance: $31 Million
- Vee Finance: $35 Million
- PancakeBunny: $45 Million
- bZx(now Ooki): $55 Million
- Badger DAO: $120 Million
- Cream Finance: $130 Million
- Vulcan Forged: $140 Million
- Compound: $150 Million
- Beanstalk: $182 Million
- Wormhole: $326 Million
- Ronin: $552 Million
- Poly Network: $611 Million.
Unfortunately in 2022, HyperVerse joined the ranks of these projects and while it took almost a year to recover the funds (unlike in the case of Poly Network where everything was recovered in a matter of weeks), we are now taking active steps to reimburse affected users. For every exploit that has been successfully carried out, a patch for that particular loophole was created and this ensures that a similar exploit would not happen again, this has the added advantage of strengthening DeFi and it would eventually get to a stage where an exploit of a DeFi protocol is close to impossible.
CRYPTOCURRENCY SECURITY TIPS
- CHOOSE WISELY: Choose platforms for trading and other operations carefully: read feedback and reviews, and, if possible, consult with experienced users you trust.
- LOGIN DETAILS Don’t give anyone your exchange account login details or your wallet credentials. Remember to keep not only your passwords and private keys secret, but also your seed phrase.
- COLD WALLET: Store your main cryptocurrency savings in cold wallets: unlike hot ones, they don’t need to be permanently online and so are more secure in general.
- PHISHING: Beware of phishing. To learn how to spot cryptocurrency hunters.
- SOFTWARE: Use a reliable solution that protects financial transactions, prevents malware from stealing your wallet password or private key, and warns you about scam sites.
- PASSWORDS: Never use the same passwords across different accounts or platforms, this ensures that if one password falls into the wrong hands or is compromised, the exploiters would not be able to access your other accounts.
For any questions or enquiries about the HyperVerse Refund Program, Don’t hesitate to reach out to us in the Refund Portal Livechat.