Contentious Crypto - ChainSwap v Persons Unknown
01 Jun 2022
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In this episode of Contentious Crypto, Christopher Pease and Megan Elms, along with Kalo guest speaker James Drury, explain what steps they took to secure a successful recovery for their client in the landmark BVI case of ChainSwap v Persons Unknown.
Key takeaways:
- How the exploit of a smart contract enabled a hacker to misappropriate a substantial number of tokens from ChainSwap’s users.
- How ChainSwap, Harneys, and Kalo were able to use blockchain explorers to identify what the hackers had done with the misappropriated tokens.
- The practical steps that can be taken to recover certain tokens, where their functionality allows tokens in the wallets of hackers, or other wrongdoers, to be burned and an equivalent number of the same tokens re-issued to those that suffered the loss.
- How tokens were laundered by the hackers by using a mixer fund, Tornado Cash, and how the tokens were traced through the mixer and into a wallet that interacted with a centralised exchange that held KYC on the hackers.
- ChainSwap’s claims and the other legal actions it took to make a recovery and to identify the wrongdoers behind the hacking.
- And, of course, the ultimate outcome of the case (spoiler alert: the hackers capitulated)!
Megan Elms is no longer with Harneys.
Authors
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