On Friday, the Cardano network experienced a ephemeral chain split due to a “poorly formed” delegation transaction, or staking pool ADA delegation transactions (ADA), which are valid at the protocol level but can cause code malfunctions that impact the functionality of the network.
According to the incident, this “malformed” transaction exploited a bug in aged code in the core software library used by the Cardano blockchain, which resulted in a partition of the network due to a lack of agreement on how nodes processed the transaction report from the ecosystem organization Cardano Intersect.
Staking pool operators were told to download the latest version of the node software to fix the issue and recreate the split chain into a single blockchain history.
However, the split led to worries about orphaned transactions and potential ADA double spending that have caused economic harm to some users.
The exploit was caused by an ADA staking pool operator known as Homer J, who used AI-generated code to force trades and accepted responsibility for causing network partition.
The ephemeral split sparked debate within the Cardano community, with some arguing that Homer J.’s actions helped reveal critical bugs and others like Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, vocation this is an attack on the Cardano network.
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Charles Hoskinson says the FBI is currently investigating, but markets have barely noticed the split
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been contacted and is investigating the incident, According to to Hoskinson. In a separate video statement, Hoskinson he said: :
“It’s kicked a hornet’s nest and in many jurisdictions it’s a crime – a very serious one. It’s tampering and destroying a digital network. Maybe it’s just shits and giggles and they think it’s all fun and games – ‘Oh look, we kicked Charles’ toy.’
But these things affect the lives, money and commerce of millions of people. “It’s like trying to shut down the economy and launch a cyber attack on a nation state,” he continued.
Chain splits or any network disruptions are typically significant events for blockchain protocols that negatively impact the price of their native tokens.
However, the price of ADA saw slight declines during and after the incident, falling from $0.44 on Friday to around $0.40 at the time of writing.
The modest price decline comes amid a broad cryptocurrency market downturn that began in October, when the historic crash led to a cascade of $20 billion in cryptocurrency liquidations – the largest single-day liquidation in cryptocurrency history.
No one noticed the Cardano network partition “because no one uses it,” one user said he said in response to Friday’s event.
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