Crypto scams · 8 cases
Governance, consensus and bridges
A blockchain runs on voting and validation rules: who approves blocks, who decides a treasury transfer, who holds a bridge's keys. When that power sits in too few hands, capturing it is enough. These cases show how a vote, a multisig or a bridge gives way.
A booby-trapped governance vote
- What happened
- A harmless-looking proposal hid a backdoor: once voted through, it drained the treasury.
- The reflex
- Before voting, look at what the proposal actually runs, not just its title.
The case
DAO Betrayal
A harmless-looking proposal, a vote, and the DAO treasury is siphoned off.
A Sybil attack on an airdrop
- What happened
- Thousands of fake addresses, run by a single group, claimed an airdrop in place of real users.
- The reflex
- Only claim an airdrop on the project's official site, never through a link you received.
The case
The Trapped Airdrop
Thousands of fake addresses drained the airdrop before anyone else.
A deposit erased by a chain reorg
- What happened
- A bridge credited a deposit before it was final, then a chain reorganization erased it.
- The reflex
- A payment is only settled after enough confirmations: wait for them before delivering.
The case
The Ghost Reorg
A bridge drained, and the deposit proof erased from the chain. The watcher is gone.
When validators cheat
- What happened
- Validators colluded to cheat, and the penalty also hit those who had delegated funds to them.
- The reflex
- Spread your staking across several validators: one validator's fault can cost you your stake.
The case
The Poisoned Staking Pool
A coordinated validator attack, and dozens of delegators' stakes evaporate.
A bridge hack
- What happened
- After a bridge between two chains was hacked, each side blamed the other. The trail does not lie.
- The reflex
- A bridge between chains is a prime target: don't leave your funds there longer than needed.
The case
The Bridge of Discord
A peace summit between two chains, and the mediator vanishes mid-session.
A vote rigged with fake identities
- What happened
- “Independent” voters were the same people, spread over several addresses to look more numerous.
- The reflex
- Before following a vote's majority, look at who is behind the addresses.
The case
The Phantom Vote
Dozens of “independent” addresses vote the same way. Too many to be true.
A treasury drained by one signature
- What happened
- A single signature was enough to send a DAO's treasury to an unknown address.
- The reflex
- A shared vault should need several signatures: no one should be able to empty it alone.
The case
Murder at the Vault
The treasurer signs a transfer to an unknown address, then drops off the radar.
Validators rewriting the chain
- What happened
- Validators voted twice for competing blocks to rewrite the chain, hiding behind duplicated keys.
- The reflex
- Choose independent, well-known validators: a cartel puts the whole chain at risk.
The case
The Validator Cartel
Validators vote twice to rewrite the chain, hidden behind duplicated keys.