Poly Network on Tuesday offered a hacker who stole from the firm a chance to be its chief security advisor.- The invitation came days after the
DeFi platform offered the same hacker a $500,000 "bug bounty." - The hacker initially stole $610 million from Poly Network - and has since returned most of the funds back.
Poly Network on Tuesday offered a cyber hacker responsible for a $600 million heist a chance to be its chief security advisor.
The invitation came days after the DeFi platform offered the same hacker a $500,000 "bug bounty" for stealing - and then returning - $610 million in what is considered one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists in history.
Similar to the monetary incentive, the offered position seeks to leverage the expertise of the hacker, who the platform refers to as "Mr. White Hat."
"To extend our thanks and encourage Mr. White Hat to continue contributing to security advancement in the blockchain world together with Poly Network, we cordially invite Mr. White Hat to be the Chief Security Advisor of Poly Network," the company said in a statement.
While the hacker did not accept the "bug bounty," according to Poly Network, he did consider offering it to the technical community who have made contributions to blockchain security, the company said.
"Whatever Mr. White Hat chooses to do with the bounty in the end, we have no objections," Poly Network said in a statement.
White Hat is industry lingo for someone who hacks for ethical reasons.
Poly Network has repeatedly affirmed to the hacker that he will not face any legal responsibility for the hack.
The platform made the hack publicly known on August 10 and, on the same day, requested for the funds to be returned. The hacker, on August 11, started siphoning the funds back.
Thus far, the hacker has returned nearly all the remaining assets, except the $33 million in frozen tether coins, according to an August 12 statement released by Poly Network.
More than $200 million of the funds though is currently locked in an account that requires a password. It is unclear why this is the case.
Poly Network said it genuinely hopes "Mr. White Hat will transfer the private keys as soon as possible so that we can return full asset control back to the users at the earliest."
The hacker said he or she stole the funds "for fun :)" because "cross-chain hacking is hot," according to a Q&A session that was embedded in ethereum transactions sent from the account holding the stolen assets.
The hacker did say they took the funds after spotting a bug "to keep it safe," adding that they wanted to highlight the vulnerabilities of the Poly Network blockchain platform.
The latest heist highlighted the ongoing risks of