Recently, a hacker who stole over $1 million in Ethereum Classic (ETC) funds has turned in some of the stolen money without any persuasions. There are still no reason or explanation for this return. However, people are assuming this action is a form of redemption due to realizing major consequences of stealing.

Regardlessly, in the past, there were some similar cases but both of the stolen money until this day still remained hidden. Mt. Gox and Coincheck both are the largest cryptocurrency hacks in history, making it a total of over $1 billion losses.

Although the situation is not fully optimistic due to the lost of the remaining $1 million in ETC funds, people still look for the positive side of this. The victims in the story of Ethereum Classic believe there is a potential “white hat” maneuver in this situation, they can now attempt more to fully improve the blockchain security.

Gate.io, the victim in this hack, explain that they did not know the reason for this return. They assume the hacker was a white hacker, which means he wants to warn people the risks in blockchain consensus.

How Dangerous Can 51 Percent Attack Be?

The money was stolen through a 51 percent attack on the Ethereum Classic blockchain. Hackers force blockchains to reorganize themselves, which makes the security more vulnerable and easy to get access in. At present time, it is calculated there are over 100 blocks on the ETC chain were reorganized.

If 50 percent of the network are hacked, attackers now can change and execute transactions any time. They can also reverse transactions after confirmed through a tactic known as “double spending.”

Researchers have commented on the impact of 51 percent attacks on ETC, these attacks bring about the decline of the net mining power of the whole network. They predict these attack on the field will nonetheless increase rapidly.

Due to this unwanted event, Gate.io has declared to improve the safety and security for their users. They have launched a strict 51 percent detect for enhanced protection and raised awareness to others ETC exchanges to protect their traders from blockchain rollback and reorganization.