NEO Network Spammed with Free Transactions
Cryptovest
Published Jul 30, 2018 06:54AM ET
Updated Jul 30, 2018 07:20AM ET
NEO Network Spammed with Free Transactions
NEO (NEO) was spammed with free transactions on Friday, resulting in full blocks and a slow congested network, as well as the temporarily halt of the blockchain-based Switcheo exchange, NEON wallet and Effect Force platform.
“The spam appeared in the form of empty invocations, allowing thousands of transactions to be submitted without any actual transfer of funds. It is unknown at this time whether this was caused by a bug in a contract’s code, or was performed with malicious intent”, NEO explained in a blog post on Monday. The company noted that although the spam attack prevented users from seeing their token balances updated, their funds remained secure.
The issue slipped under the radar over the weekend as no official statement has been immediately released by NEO. An announcement came from Effect.AI (EFX), a decentralized platform for Artificial Intelligence which last month launched its Effect Force platform in private beta on the NEO MainNet.
“We regret to inform our dedicated Effect Force private beta workers that we are closing the Effect Force platform due to the current major issues with the NEO blockchain. We will keep you posted on the developments,” Effect.AI said in a Twitter post:
Answering to users’ demand for more details, the company revealed that NEO is being spammed with free transactions, adding that the network was working on the issues.
Peter Lin, director of R&D at NEO Global Development, also acknowledged the recent events, writing in a Medium post on Saturday:
“Recently, the number of transactions on the NEO network has increased significantly. Some of them are meaningless and could be considered as an attack. NEO is designed to be a high performance blockchain system that can handle high transactions per second (TPS) scenarios in event such as this.”
Lin went on to explain the technicalities of the situation and recommend appropriate actions:
“The NEO team is encouraging exchanges to add a transaction fee when a user withdraws NEO tokens from the exchange,” Lin said adding that the team is advising all wallet clients to add the ability for a user to set the transaction fee, so that users can make their own choice to pay the fee or not.
His advice was echoed in NEO’s statement, with the company informing users that its development team is still working to prevent a similar attack from disrupting NEO in the future.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
Get The News You Want
Written By: Cryptovest
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.