Harmony Abandons Blockchain Network Amid State Actor Threats
Harmony, a blockchain network that was hacked in 2022 and again this year, is now proposing to abandon its own network and migrate to Ethereum. The plan would preserve the token ONE through a snapshot and airdrop, but leave behind smart contracts, liquidity pools, and multisig safes. This decision comes after Harmony rolled back its chain in August due to an exploit that allowed attackers to mint tokens without corresponding debits.
The exploit on August 11 created over 3 trillion unauthorized ONE tokens across six forged transactions. The network was restored on August 21 after discarding more than 109,000 regular transactions and 315 staking transactions from the affected shard-0 archive. Despite this effort to recover, Harmony is now considering abandoning its independent network due to threats from state actors and AI agents.
The migration proposal would take a snapshot at the chain's final block and distribute new ONE tokens to the same wallet addresses on Ethereum. However, smart contracts, liquidity pools, and multisig safes will not migrate automatically, prompting Harmony to urge users to exit these contracts before September 10.