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Ethereums layer-2 solution Linea is promising greater decentralization after the projects team manually halted block production in a bid to censor a hackers address.

Linea, Ethereums zkEVM solution designed to improve scalability with over $1 billion in locked value, has found itself in hot water over its what appears to be ambiguous decision to stop the whole network in a bid to censor one address associated with a hacker, who attacked Linea-based decentralized exchange Velocore for $7 million.

Because other avenues of handling this exploit closed, our team halted the sequencer to prevent additional funds bridging out. This was the last resort action to protect users on Linea.https://t.co/xfXec1O0ef

In an X thread on Jun. 3, the team behind the project confirmed the suspension of block production, saying it was not a decision we took lightly.

One of the key drivers in our decision to pause the sequencer was that the hacker had acquired and was beginning to sell a large sum of tokens into ETH. This would have created other issues in the ecosystem for users beyond the liquidity pool draining exploit.

Linea

The pause in block production, spanning a critical hour between block 5,081,800 and 5,081,801, allowed Linea to assess the situation. During the period, efforts were made to engage with the Velocore team and coordinate responses to the vulnerability, the thread reads.

The move, however, raised concerns among members of the crypto community, raising their eye brows due to the move that blocked the whole network with over $1.2 billion in value, according to data from L2Beat.

Stopping block production with over $1.2B in assets on the Linea chain. You're calling it decentralization? Lmaoo. pic.twitter.com/onFUNuWHKZ

Linea acknowledged that its current reliance on centralized technical operations highlights the need for ongoing efforts to transition towards a fully decentralized, censorship-resistant network, noting though that its core values are permissionless and censorship-resistant environment.

In parallel, both Linea and Velocore teams have initiated measures to address the exploit, including on-chain negotiations and coordination with centralized exchanges to freeze exploited funds. The Velocore team has released a post-mortem on the exploit, outlining affected pools and ongoing efforts to compensate affected users.

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Linea pledges decentralization after halting block production to stop hacker - crypto.news