NEAR Blocks Hackers Without Breaking User Privacy
On September 24th, cryptocurrency exchange Bitget suffered a massive hack resulting in the theft of approximately $387.5 million.
The attackers moved the stolen funds across chains, mainly into Ethereum, and attempted to use various protocols for their escape. Among these were crosschain rails such as THORChain and NEAR Intents.
While hackers successfully swapped more than $6 million worth of ETH through THORChain after its CEO was formally asked by Bitget's Gracy Chen to refuse service, NEAR Intents' SHIELD risk intel layer denied almost all of the attempted funds, allowing only $166,000 to pass.
This defensive mechanism has been met with both praise and criticism. Some in the industry have commended NEAR for finding a balance between security and user experience, while others worry that this move could set a precedent for the platform to clamp down on legitimate users under different circumstances.
NEAR's Confidential Intents allow for permissionless privacy, but SHIELD works as a de facto gate at the entrance of this system. It checks public deposit addresses against shared stolen funds intel and declines access to nefarious accounts without compromising user anonymity.