While a validator has also threatened to call it quits because of the ongoing THORChain controversy. Another THORChain developer says he is leaving the crypto protocol after a vote to block North Korean hacker-linked transactions was overturned.
“I will no longer be contributing to THORChain effectively immediately,” the core developer of the cross chain swap protocol, known by the name “Pluto,” wrote in a social media platform X post on February 27.
Pluto said they would be still accessible “as long as I am needed and to ensure an orderly hand-off of my responsibilities.”
Pluto’s departure follows THORChain validator “TCB’s said on X that they were one of three validators who voted to stop Ethe trading on the protocol to cut off the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group.
Oleg Petrov, the developer of THORSwap, said and clarified that the vote “was rolled back within minutes.” The operational setting is stopping a chain. It needs 3 node votes to be effective and 4 to be reversed.
Later on, TCB wrote on X that they would also leave “if we don’t quickly adopt a solution to stop North Korean flows.”
This week, the Lazarus Group has been moving some of the $1.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency that it stole from the Bybit exchange on February 21. On February 28, Lookonchain posted to X that the group had sent ETH valued at $605 million through THORChain.
Source: Lookonchain
THORChain Records Breaking Trading Volume
With the protocol processing almost $860 million in swaps on February 26, THORChain’s volumes have reached their highest-ever daily volume.
This rising volume carried through into February 27, ending the day at roughly $705 million.
On the other side, the FBI has also confirmed earlier allegations that North Korea was behind the record Bybit hack and advised crypto validators and exchanges to cut off the Lazarus Group.
TCB stated, “This is a national security issue when most of your flows are stolen funds from North Korea for the biggest money stolen in human history.” It’s no longer a game.
John-Paul Thorbjornsen, the founder of THORChain, told in a media interaction that he has no interaction with THORChain but said none of the approved wallet addresses mentioned by the FBI and the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control have banned “has ever interacted with the protocol.”
He also added that the actor is moving money faster than any screening agency can track. Expecting these blockchains, including THORChain, to censor is unrealistic.
In a different post, Thorbjornsen said that he has “not been served by any authority, nor aware of any node that has” and the protocol “does not launder money.” He also said that all of Lazarus Group’s ETH to Bitcoin trades end up in centralized exchanges “where they are swapped for fiat.
He told to media that THORChain nodes are churned. If they don’t follow the protocol, which includes handling inbound swap transactions.
THORChain’s Decentralization Claims Are Probed
TCB posted and wrote that THORChain is “not decentralized enough to survive a regulatory attack” since it is not a blockchain like Bitcoin that has a large base of validators.
They also mentioned that some design decisions made it difficult to onboard new validators. Which is why “there aren’t that many actors running things.”
They added, “You can say as many times as you want a blue car is red, but it won’t make THORChain truly decentralized, encrypted, and open to everyone. Because “It’s a small group running all the infrastructure and corporate people handle all the user flows.”
TCB said all of these companies “ already censor transactions on their front ends.”
“Based on what I understand, many of them will be moving on should THORChain continue this,” they said.
