The Big Cryptocurrency Heist and the Rollback Debate
Imagine this: in February 2025, a huge hack happens on a place called Bybit, where people trade something called Ethereum (ETH). Almost $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum, that’s like a billion dollars, just vanishes![1][3] This event made everyone in the Ethereum world start talking about something called a ‘rollback’.
What’s the Bybit Hack all about?
The Bybit hack was one of the biggest in the history of cryptocurrency. A group called Lazarus, from North Korea, stole over 400,000 ETH, that’s like stealing a lot of money![3][4] This hack made people think about ways to fix the damage. A guy named Arthur Hayes, who started a place called BitMEX, even suggested rolling back the Ethereum network to get the stolen money back. But not everyone agreed with this idea.
What’s a Blockchain Rollback?
A blockchain rollback is like going back in time on the Ethereum network. Imagine you’re playing a video game, and you did something wrong. A rollback would let you go back to a time before you made that mistake. In the Ethereum world, a rollback would mean reversing some transactions to fix the network.[5]
Remember the DAO Hack?
Back in 2016, something called the DAO got hacked. The Ethereum community had to do something called a ‘hard fork’ to fix it. This hard fork created two different Ethereum networks, and they could get the stolen money back on the new network. But this wasn’t exactly a rollback.[1]
Why Rollbacks are Tricky
Doing a rollback on Ethereum today would be really hard. Ethereum keeps track of everyone’s account balance with every transaction. So, it’s not easy to fix things if something goes wrong.[1] Plus, rollbacks can make people lose trust in the network because they go against the rules of blockchain, like being unchangeable and having many people in charge.[1][5]
What’s Next for Blockchain?
So, the Bybit hack made people think about how to keep blockchain safe without breaking its rules. The Ethereum community said no to rollbacks because they want to keep the network trustworthy. As blockchain keeps growing, it needs to find a good balance between being safe and keeping its core values.[1][5]
—
Sources:
– Cryptonomist
– ZyCrypto
– BeInC