Tim Beiko, one of Ethereum’s lead developers, has clarified that the blockchain cannot be rolled back following the devastating $1.4 billion hack that took place Friday.
As Beiko explained, there was no issue with the Ethereum protocol. “From the perspective of the Ethereum protocol, there is nothing to distinguish that transaction from other legitimate transactions on the network,” he said.
The Ethereum blockchain famously underwent a hard fork in the aftermath of the DAO hack back in 2016. By exploiting a vulnerability in the DAO smart contract, the attacker managed to plunder roughly $60 million worth of ETH. A new version of the network was then created in order to erase the attacker’s transactions. The older version of the chain that rejected the fork is known as Ethereum Classic.
