Two days ago, I became a MakerDAO ..
FN managed to avoid the Maker username falling into the hands of North Korean hackers with their single status for N years.Author: Foresight News
Yes, the Twitter account with the username MakerDAO is now in my hands. I want to share what happened from a first-person perspective, along with some reflections:
What Happened
To bring firsthand news to our readers, FN members are constantly monitoring various information sources. I am no exception ------ so I learned right away that "the Maker brand has been rebranded."
Firsthand information is often "incomplete," so to provide our readers with complete and effective information, we often delve deeper ------ What exactly has Maker been rebranded to? Clicking on their official Twitter, everything looks the same; refreshing the page, the nickname has changed to Sky, but the username remains the same.
Like our users, FN members are sharp and can infer and extract actionable insights from information. I am no different ------ the nickname has changed, so the username should change too. Maybe I can modify the username now and snag this special username?
Smoothly, surprisingly smoothly. Soon I found myself in front of the screen, staring at the modified username and my slender fingers, lost in thought ------ Am I really a genius?
Foresight News WeChat group chat screenshot
What Could Have Happened
Coming back to my senses, I suddenly felt a wave of fear.
This must be considered a mistake on Sky's part ------ If it weren't for me, this could have turned into a disaster. If this username had fallen into the hands of North Korean hackers or anyone with malicious intent: changing the profile picture and nickname to Maker, Sky, claiming to conduct "the largest airdrop in crypto history" and attaching phishing links; or launching a meme coin, pretending to be the official Maker and releasing a token contract… Given Maker's influence, this could have led to many users being scammed out of significant assets.
Moreover, I could have sold this account for a huge profit without taking any responsibility. "What the buyer would do with my account, I have no idea."
Fortunately, we are all upright and selfless, not swayed by ill-gotten gains.
A Bit of Reflection
Why did all this happen? Setting aside Sky's execution errors, it actually reflects the common issues of centralized social platforms.
In the decentralized industry of crypto, too much communication happens on X (Twitter), a centralized platform. And we lack a "decentralized identity."
This leads to significant potential losses for projects and users due to the loss of centralized identities, whether for technical reasons or others.
For the industry to progress, we need to make changes.
Solutions to the Incident
On-chain detective ZachXBT indicated that clients with phishing tools offered a six-figure sum for this username. To be honest, after seeing this price, I felt a bit regretful for being too principled; why not take the money and run? (laughs).
But to protect the industry, the users, and my own conscience, I still adhered to my principles. (After giving up so much money, am I not allowed to brag a little?)
In the end, I only used the @MakerDAO account to post some self-entertaining content, without doing anything for my personal gain.
Moreover, because I love the company so much, I voluntarily brought in some traffic for FN (Boss, please give me a raise directly if you see this, no need to discuss with me). This also led Maker (Sky) to reach out through the company.
Regarding this account, I prefer to keep it myself. On one hand, because I am also a crypto practitioner and DeFi enthusiast, this special username has collectible value; on the other hand, this account can also bring more traffic. Traffic is still very important for media workers.
If I can keep this account, FN and I will use it to discuss beneficial topics like DeFi, decentralization, DID, etc., aiming for a win-win situation; however, after Sky's team contacted me, they expressed their desire to regain control of the account, but they don't seem to be in a hurry.
The situation is still under communication, and that's where things stand right now.
