The Sui ecosystem has suffered a major hacker attack, sparking decentralization controversy.

Recently, the Sui ecosystem experienced a serious hacker attack, resulting in a loss of approximately $223 million. This incident not only exposed the security vulnerabilities of emerging public chains but also sparked intense discussions about the essence of blockchain decentralization.

Attack Details and Impact

On May 22, the largest decentralized exchange in the Sui ecosystem was hacked. The attacker exploited a vulnerability in the smart contract to deploy fake tokens and successfully cashed out. In just 10 minutes, the hacker stole $223 million in funds.

This attack has caused a serious impact on the Sui ecosystem:

• Major meme tokens such as LOFI, HIPPO, and SQUIRT plummeted over 75% within an hour.
• The native token of a certain exchange dropped by 53% in 4 days.
• The total locked value of Sui decreased from $2.1 billion to $1.7 billion, a drop of 20%.
• The price of SUI token has dropped by about 15%.

Controversial Measures

In the face of this crisis, the Sui network took a controversial measure: 114 validation nodes collectively decided to freeze the Hacker addresses, successfully recovering $162 million in funds. However, this action sparked a strong reaction from the crypto community.

Many supporters of Decentralization believe that this centralized decision-making is contrary to the core concept of blockchain. They point out that Sui has only 114 validator nodes, far fewer than Ethereum's 1 million and Solana's 1153, which highlights the level of centralization of Sui.

Historical Repetition and Trust Crisis

It is worth noting that this is not the first time the team has encountered a similar attack. In July 2022, they suffered a $9 million hacker attack on another exchange operating within the Solana ecosystem. At that time, they resolved the issue by offering a bounty to the hacker.

This time, the repetition not only had a larger scale but also further damaged the community's trust in the team's capabilities. Some users questioned: "The same team, the same vulnerabilities, different blockchains. How many more chances do they have?"

Sui's Response Strategy

To turn the situation around, Sui announced the following measures:

1. Invest $10 million in comprehensive security rectification, including strengthening smart contract audits, increasing bug bounties, and introducing formal verification tools.

2. Propose the concept of "shared responsibility" and emphasize that developers also need to assume security responsibilities.

3. Propose a settlement to the Hacker: Return $217 million to retain $6 million and promise not to sue.

However, whether these measures can effectively restore user confidence remains to be seen.

Deep Thinking

This incident has sparked a series of in-depth reflections on the nature of blockchain:

1. How to balance between Decentralization and user protection? Sui chose to protect user funds but sacrificed some decentralization features.

2. How can blockchain networks address increasingly complex security challenges while maintaining Decentralization?

3. In the highly competitive public chain field, how to find a balance between security, performance, and Decentralization?

4. Should a more transparent and democratic decision-making mechanism be established for major security incidents?

As the cryptocurrency industry continues to evolve, these issues will continue to test every blockchain project. Sui's experience undoubtedly provides valuable lessons for the entire industry.