Sebastian Sinclair

Macauley Peterson

<div id="highlights-block_634655ddb3f28" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Mango is currently investigating an exploit of the oracle price feeds for its own governance token</li>
 <li>The hacker responsible is asking DAO members to vote on a proposal that would return a portion of the stolen funds</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Mango Markets, a decentralized finance trading platform on the Solana blockchain, said Tuesday it was investigating a hack worth approximately $112 million in digital assets.



Mango said the hacker was able to drain funds from its platform utilizing a technique known as oracle price manipulation — a form of economic attack that has hit other DeFi protocols before.



The actor managed to withdraw various digital assets — mostly stablecoins, including $53.7 million in USD Coin (USDC) and $3.2 million in tether (USDT) — but also solana (SOL).



In an unusual twist, they’re <a href="https://app.realms.today/dao/DPiH3H3c7t47BMxqTxLsuPQpEC6Kne8GA9VXbxpnZxFE/proposal/3WZ5DpZXDvNAK4JwPS1HDPzSinEJUGpBC4XXx9vPtnVS" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proposing to return</a> a portion of the stolen funds, namely Marinade-staked solana (MSOL), native SOL and the platform’s own MNGO governance token. The rest the culprit claims as a “bounty.”



That is, of course, if Mango’s DAO community votes yes on the thief&#8217;s proposal.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“By voting for this proposal, mango token holders agree to pay this bounty and pay off the bad debt with the treasury, and waive any potential claims against accounts with bad debt, and will not pursue any criminal investigations or freezing of funds once the tokens are sent back as described above,” <a href="https://app.realms.today/dao/DPiH3H3c7t47BMxqTxLsuPQpEC6Kne8GA9VXbxpnZxFE/proposal/3WZ5DpZXDvNAK4JwPS1HDPzSinEJUGpBC4XXx9vPtnVS" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the attacker wrote</a> on the protocol’s governance forum.</blockquote>



The hacker is requesting Mango use its treasury stash of 70 million USDC to repay “bad debt.” This debt derives from an <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/solana-lending-protocol-faces-governance-conundrum/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">incident</a> in June when the Mango community <a href="https://twitter.com/dadadadaffy/status/1539219965492047874" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">teamed up</a> with another Solana-based lending and borrowing protocol, Solend, to deal with a systemic risk caused by a single large borrower, at risk of liquidation, that put the entire Solana DeFi ecosystem in jeopardy.



The Mango DAO, or stewards of the protocol, should also not pursue any criminal investigations or freeze the attacker’s funds — via centralized stablecoins such as USDC and USDT — once the cryptoassets are returned.



But not all the assets will be returned; while a definitive amount for the bounty was not given, it can be assumed from the tokens omitted from the initial hack that the attacker is requesting to keep well over half of what they stole — substantially more than most “white hat” hackers or <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=bounty" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bug bounty hunters</a> typically receive.



Still, Mango DAO members have so far voted in favor of the hacker’s proposal, with a 99.9% &#8220;yes&#8221; rate from roughly 33 million MNGO tokens — although just a single wallet address is responsible for the lion’s share of the vote. As DAOs go, this one is extremely centralized, with most governance votes being decided by just a handful of addresses.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/trU04t8jB7XWOD5WPANIn0V_WPQT9lauwb9qncu5j5DiqXFcACTG5GnxwVX3aFRxjwWcmRqTw-RJNNqsciFHU-Ycmi9pB30ehCiUrNjW1T8QOx2lWDsJ2FpZsuV601NVd5CGhPTavLBePiORAbewOcsAbqK2anQML0oV2M7H27yoxDpbwXPjOwkf3Q" alt="" width="800" height="276"/><figcaption>The top voters holding the bulk of MNGO tokens | Source: <a href="https://app.realms.today/dao/DPiH3H3c7t47BMxqTxLsuPQpEC6Kne8GA9VXbxpnZxFE/proposal/3WZ5DpZXDvNAK4JwPS1HDPzSinEJUGpBC4XXx9vPtnVS/explore" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mango governance vote</a></figcaption></figure></div>


A further 67 million yes votes are required for the proposal to pass a quorum threshold during the three-day voting period.



<h3>Price oracle manipulation</h3>



While the consultation and investigation continue, the platform’s stewards have requested users to cease depositing assets until the situation becomes clearer.



Dapps such as Mango rely on oracles to pull on-chain data for specific tokens. Manipulation occurs when protocols such as data feeds are corrupted, allowing transactions that were not intended.



In the case of Mango, the attacker was able to manipulate their collateral value via the platform before taking out “massive loans” totaling $112,199,876 from Mango’s treasury, security auditing firm <a href="https://twitter.com/osec_io/status/1579969927020412929" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OtterSec reported</a> on Twitter.



OtterSec founder Robert Chen confirmed the figure to Blockworks who said the price manipulation was suspected to have occurred on centralized exchanges which Mango used to reference the value of the collateral.



MNGO’s price briefly spiked about 300% to $0.15 in the space of 10 minutes on the FTX exchange, then dropped 88% to under $0.02 following the attack.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ex0Qf7G_cCBVpkcvRInuxhu6D3qAr4Ujh6pQ5uwR_z0s6DxDKHHtistpPfC_lSxNUiHbLG26TMBk51UqyxFtY-glvT72k50Y4emXTJeVPLovBlZN5HHwiBkaWtMjmiHZJpi_SxABEv5w_bQ9b8Sb3L5q2u1yChE0dwG2926O21huIBRc2IJCzQ2mfg" alt="" width="800" height="500"/><figcaption>The MNGO/USD market on FTX, 1-minute time frame | Source: TradingView</figcaption></figure></div>


Solana developer Tom Geshury was credited with being the first to bring the hack to the security auditing firm’s attention.



Geshury told Blockworks the hacker used $10 million to self-trade Mango perpetual contracts and then an estimated $3 million to pump the price of MNGO and execute the plan, before market participants got wind of the scheme and began dumping their tokens.



Mango Markets is <a href="https://docs.mango.markets/tutorials/trading-on-mango" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an interface to margin trade</a> on the Serum DEX, which is backed by the crypto arm of trading giant Jump Capital. Jump Crypto’s president Kanav Kariya also confirmed the mechanism at play in the exploit.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Jesus, the attacker pumped and dumped the mango token, which is a thinly traded token. Oracles just report the price. Pyth/Switchboard accurately reported the prevailing prices on exchanges&mdash; Kanav Kariya (@KanavKariya) <a href="https://twitter.com/KanavKariya/status/1579986625060573184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 12, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Mango has released a <a href="https://twitter.com/mangomarkets/status/1579979342423396352?s=20&amp;t=UHiIdt-zGgX-qsdd8kfG6w" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a> saying it is taking steps to have third parties freeze funds in flight.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“We will be disabling deposits on the front end as a precaution and will keep you updated as the situation evolves,” the group <a href="https://twitter.com/mangomarkets/status/1579979342423396352" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said via Twitter</a>.</blockquote>



Blockworks attempted to contact several admins on the Mango Discord channel but was unsuccessful.



A number of protocols have been hit by such attacks this year alone, including DeFi platform Inverse Finance for <a href="https://halborn.com/explained-the-inverse-finance-hack-june-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$5.8 million</a> in June and stablecoin lending platform Fortress Protocol for <a href="https://www.stealthlabs.com/news/fortress-protocol-lost-usd-3-mn-in-oracle-price-manipulation-attack/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$3 million</a> in May.



The attack against Mango comes less than a week after Binance’s own network, BNB Chain, was targeted for <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/binance-pauses-trading-of-native-token/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hundreds of millions of dollars</a> via a cross-chain bridge exploit. The amount stolen was <a href="https://www.bnbchain.org/en/blog/bnb-chain-a-decentralized-response/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">contained to about $100 million</a>.



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Mango Markets Mangled by Oracle Manipulation for $112M

Michael Bodley

<div id="highlights-block_245540472118b82752189a8e66aaa978" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The solution is available on more than a dozen blockchains, with plans to expand to additional protocols in relatively short order</li>
 <li>Most random number generators actually have a limited data set, the startup told Blockworks</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



A random number generator that relies on quantum mechanics to produce smart contract-driven data sets empowered by blockchain technology has launched on more than a dozen cryptocurrency protocols.&nbsp;



API3, in partnership with a group of researchers from the <a href="https://anuquantumoptics.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Australian National University’s Quantum Optics Group,</a> has dubbed its new product, ANU QRNG, the first “true” random number generator for smart contracts.&nbsp;



Ten of the 13 blockchains the startup is launching on don’t yet have a random number generator available, the company told Blockworks. Some of those protocols use a random number generator that doesn’t employ quantum technology — meaning their data set is limited, or a “pseudo random number,” in industry speak.&nbsp;



A truly randomized dataset, combined with blockchain technology, allows for a number grouping for the likes of crypto gambling that cannot be manipulated to serve the needs of the house. To produce random numbers now, the company said, startups use what amounts to a &#8220;random&#8221; <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-are-seed-phrases">seed phrase</a> that allows for the data set to be predicted — and perhaps taken advantage of — if the holder or a nefarious third party wants to do so. 



“Say we take something simple, like a coin flip, for example,” Ugur Mersinlioglu, product manager at API3, said. “If you have a conflict with a ‘pseudo’ random number, you’re going to notice, at some point, that certain patterns are going to be repetitive…Whereas, if you have a process that practically doesn’t spit out any detectable patterns, you can actually say that this is not capable of [manipulation] by anybody.”



The quantum randomness in this case stems from measuring the random fluctuations in phase and amplitude of an electromagnetic field in a vacuum, according to the <a href="https://qrng.anu.edu.au/contact/api-documentation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">project documentation</a>.



The service is available on blockchains including <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=Avalanche" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Avalanche</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=Fantom" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fantom</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=Metis" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Metis</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=Moonbeam" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Moonbeam</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=Polygon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polygon</a> and RSK — with plans for additional future integrations.&nbsp;



The company doesn’t make money on the random number generation, instead tapping it as a loss-leader into its other product lines, such as its oracle solutions and data integration services, including a validation pool that relies on staking its native token to function.



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Quantum Mechanics-based Random Number Generator To Enable Blockchain Gambling

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_625efbaff8465" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>By storing carbon credits as digital tokens, they can be more easily tracked and traded</li>
 <li>Companies using blockchains and smart contracts to advance climate change initiatives to become “industry norm,” according to Chainlink Labs</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain technology will play a key role in combating climate change by managing clean energy solutions and enabling enhanced automation, a report by Chainlink Labs and Tecnalia says.



<a href="https://chainlinklabs.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chainlink Labs</a>, which offers open-source blockchain interoperability solutions, and European research institute <a href="https://www.tecnalia.com/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tecnalia</a> posited in a <a href="https://chain.link/resources/managing-climate-change-energy-industry" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> Tuesday that the energy industry can make clean energy investments more efficient by leveraging blockchain technologies.  



By tapping blockchains, the power business can better digitize and value clean energy investments, according to the report. That would likely lead to additional capital deployed to green investment opportunities, more transparency and stronger accountability when it comes to meeting climate-friendly commitments, the two companies found.&nbsp;



The report labels “hybrid smart contracts” as the new backend framework necessary for building clean energy solutions. The framework uses blockchains to track and settle multi-party processes and smart contracts to define the rules for involved parties.



It also uses oracles — or interoperability solutions for blockchains built on smart contracts — to integrate data and non-blockchain infrastructure into the contracts.



More than 140 research projects and startups had begun studying, testing and deploying blockchain-based solutions as of 2019 to improve energy industry processes, the report says.



“As more and more companies recognize how blockchains, smart contracts and oracles can advance climate change initiatives, we’ll begin to see a trend that will only grow with time until it becomes an industry norm,” a Chainlink Labs spokesperson told Blockworks.&nbsp;



Among the use cases outlined in the report are tokenized carbon credits, which companies buy to offset emissions. By storing carbon credits as digital tokens, the thinking goes, the tokens can be more easily tracked and traded, and oracles can then issue and audit them.



Oracles can use satellite and remote sensing data to measure the carbon sequestration in a certain region to verify a project’s stated carbon offset before issuing a credit.



Hybrid smart contract system Hyphen, for example, uses Chainlink oracles to bring verified greenhouse gas data on-chain and prove stated corporate climate commitments.



“We can now supply validated real-world measurements to dynamic carbon assets,” Hyphen CEO Miles Austin said in a statement. “This gives confidence to investors, capital markets, banks [and] regulators.”



Like the tokenization of carbon credits, climate bonds and green bonds — fixed income instruments that raise money for environmental projects — can also be tokenized on blockchains.



Ethereum-based climate risk solutions platform <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3508495-1&amp;h=1682524004&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.arbolmarket.com%2Fenergy&amp;a=Arbol" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Arbol</a> uses smart contracts to help energy businesses hedge power demand and revenue fluctuations around changing temperatures.



Individuals could also be incentivized to reduce emissions through rewards programs, according to the report. Consumers could be compensated with crypto or NFTs in exchange for meeting the requirements of a smart contract designed to minimize their carbon footprint.



Going forward, clean energy industry leaders must assign researchers to focus on the benefits of blockchain technology and how they can leverage smart contract and oracle technologies before competitors, the Chainlink Labs representative said.



“What they discover will motivate them to act,” the spokesperson added. “And that momentum on an industry-wide level will help facilitate the inflection point we need to realize a more sustainable future.”



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