4 ms·

How is this different from a bitcoin miner minting coins, trading them for another coin, and withdrawing? If code is law, attacker was playing by the rules. I

by cwkoss 5y ago

How is this different from a bitcoin miner minting coins, trading them for another coin, and withdrawing? If code is law, attacker was playing by the rules. I don't think this is clear-cut illegal. It looks illegal-ish, but I think a good lawyer could argue it isnt. Does Solana/Wormhole have ToS that (in the courts eyes) overrides the state of the blockchain? If they did, doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of a decentralized blockchain?

TameAntelope 5y ago
Code isn't law, is the point. No matter how many times people try to claim that, the legal system does not, to my understanding, actually work that way. It would depend entirely on what a judge and a jury think about how the law ends up getting applied, were this tried in US courts.
- cwkoss 5y ago
  If code isn't law, could a crypto holder sue a crypto miner for inflating the market supply and reducing the value of their holdings? What is the legal distinction between mining (which is intent of the protocol) and this attack (presumably not the intent of wormhole)? Do blockchain services need to create ToS's which can legally supercede in the case of bugs in order for courts to punish attackers? Would blockchain users accept a service with such a delegation of state?
  - TameAntelope 5y ago
    You can sue anyone for anything in my country (USA), but I don't know if you'd win, for so, so many reasons.
- PretzelPirate 5y ago
  Interestingly enough, the only people I see saying “code is law” nowadays are people who are accusing the blockchain community of being the ones pushing that idea.
shinryuu 5y ago
An exploit is technically always following the rules of a system. Take for example a sql injection. The system allowed a sql injection, you told the system to execute the sql code of your choice and bam you got what you wanted at the expense of the counterparty. This would still be considered illegal. code is code, code isn't law. Even if you try to call it 'smart contracts'.

by cwkoss 5y ago

TameAntelope 5y ago

Code isn't law, is the point. No matter how many times people try to claim that, the legal system does not, to my understanding, actually work that way. It would depend entirely on what a judge and a jury think about how the law ends up getting applied, were this tried in US courts.

cwkoss 5y ago
If code isn't law, could a crypto holder sue a crypto miner for inflating the market supply and reducing the value of their holdings? What is the legal distinction between mining (which is intent of the protocol) and this attack (presumably not the intent of wormhole)? Do blockchain services need to create ToS's which can legally supercede in the case of bugs in order for courts to punish attackers? Would blockchain users accept a service with such a delegation of state?
- TameAntelope 5y ago
  You can sue anyone for anything in my country (USA), but I don't know if you'd win, for so, so many reasons.
PretzelPirate 5y ago
Interestingly enough, the only people I see saying “code is law” nowadays are people who are accusing the blockchain community of being the ones pushing that idea.

shinryuu 5y ago

An exploit is technically always following the rules of a system. Take for example a sql injection. The system allowed a sql injection, you told the system to execute the sql code of your choice and bam you got what you wanted at the expense of the counterparty. This would still be considered illegal. code is code, code isn't law. Even if you try to call it 'smart contracts'.