Key takeaways:
- Mirror on the Terra, a synthetic asset protocol, is under suspicion of a governance attack.
- Proposal 185 was started by the attacker, who disguised it as a call for cooperation with Solana in order to rob the community fund pool of 15 million MIR tokens.
- Hackers planned to corrupt the network by acquiring $38.7 million in MIR tokens (equal to 15 million MIR) at $2.58 per token.
Terra is a public blockchain technology that uses a set of algorithmic decentralized stablecoins to support a vibrant ecosystem that makes DeFi accessible to the general public.
Terra, according to its white paper, combines the price stability and widespread use of fiat currencies with the censorship resistance of Bitcoin (BTC) to provide quick and economical transactions.
Terra’s development began in January 2018, and the mainnet launched in April 2019. It now offers stablecoins tied to the US dollar, South Korean won, Mongolian tugrik, and the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights basket of currencies, with more alternatives on the way.
The native token of Terra, LUNA, is used to keep the price of the protocol’s stablecoins stable. Holders of LUNA can also submit and vote on governance ideas, effectively making it a governance token.
The synthetic asset protocol, according to Chinese journalist Colin Wu, was targeted to a governance attack. Hackers attempted to deceive the network by stealing $38.7 million in MIR tokens (equal to 15 million MIR) at $2.58 per token.
Mirror Protocol is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that allows users to create synthetic assets or crypto tokens that mimic the price of real-world assets like equities.
Synthetic tokens provide investors access to the price of the real-world assets they reflect without requiring them to possess those assets themselves. As a result, traders who would otherwise be unable to trade certain underlying assets due to territorial restrictions or a lack of money stand to benefit from their price changes.
Mirror Protocol is based on the Terra blockchain, but its synthetic assets, known as Mirror Assets (mAssets), are also accessible via bridges on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The holders of Mirror token (MIR), the protocol’s native governance token, manage it.
The attackers disguised their attack as a request for assistance with the Solana network by submitting Proposal 185. The attackers selected Christmas Eve to carry out the hack and launch a dozen fraudulent governance proposals.
The community fund pool of the Mirror protocol was the objective of the attack, which demanded extensive cooperation from Solana. The attacker’s scheme to steal 15 million MIR tokens was meticulously prepared.
@mirror_polls also issued a scam alert, “Poll 211 is SCAM — sending 25,000,000 MIR to itself”
Despite the news of the attack, the price of the synthetic asset protocol has increased by 1.7 percent.
