THORChain Refuses to Block Stolen Funds Amid Hacking Debacle

The recent hack of Bitget on September 24th saw $387.5 million in stolen funds moved across chains, some of which landed on decentralized cross-chain swaps platform THORChain.

Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, publicly appealed to THORChain to refuse service to attacker-linked addresses, stating 'The industry is watching.'

However, THORChain refused, sparking a heated debate between those who believe protocols have a moral obligation to block stolen funds and those who hold the cypherpunk ideals of decentralized, permissionless technology sacrosanct.

Developer Boone Wheeler argued that if THORChain were able to block specific stolen funds, it would not be permissionless. He claimed there is 'firm consensus' among THORChain's nodes around the ideal of being permissionless and that halts are only used when there is an active issue or problem with the protocol.

In contrast, NEAR Intents, a cross-chain transaction competitor of THORChain, took a different approach by intervening to block hack-linked funds. Its automated security layer SHIELD identified more than $50 million in attempted flows linked to the Bitget incident and stopped $503,000 during execution, with $166,000 passing through.

NEAR Intents' General Manager Alex Shevchenko stated that NEAR Protocol is permissionless: 'anyone can build on it, transact on it, and become a validator...No one needs permission to hold or transfer assets or deploy contracts on NEAR Protocol.'