A computer scientist who looks for expensive flaws in cypto code
Join Our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage Before some of the most explosive developments to affect the crypto industry last year, in the spring of 2022, an NFT artist by the name of Micah Johnson set out to hold a new auction of his drawings. Johnson is well-known in the crypto community for his depictions of the young Black child Aku, who aspires to be an astronaut. For the newest release, collectors formed a line. They spent $34 million on the NFTs on the auction day. Then, depending on your perspective, tragedy (or comedy) struck. To handle the cryptocurrency auction, Johnson’s software team created “smart contract” programming, but it had a serious flaw. Johnson’s sales totaled $34 million, and they were all secured on the Ethereum blockchain. Johnson was unable to withdraw the money or give refunds to those who had placed bids on NFTs but lost their auctions. As they say, the virtual currency was “locked on chain,...