By Tobi Loba
Ethereum Foundation has challenged all hackers across the world to attempt attacking incentivized ETH 2.0 testnet for a bug bounty after the launch of two Attacknets.
The launch of the public attack networks for Ethereum 2.0 was announced via Twitter a couple of hours ago by Danny Ryan, the ETH 2.0 coordinator.
Danny Ryan tweeted, “Announcing eth2 attacknets — beta-0! We welcome white hats to bring down the two beta-0 attacknets for reward and fame. Check out the new “attacknets” channel on the eth r&d discord for discussion.”
Announcing eth2 attacknets — beta-0! https://t.co/nMXChoDaVH
We welcome white hats to bring down the two beta-0 attacknets for reward and fame 🙂
Check out the new "attacknets" channel on the eth r&d discord for discussion
— dannyryan☀️ (@dannyryan) July 20, 2020
Haxors will be rewarded with $5,000 to bring down Lighthouse or Prysm, the two Ethereum 2.0 clients in this incentivized testnet.
According to the github Public Attacknet page:
“Lighthouse-attack-0 and prysm-attack-0 are real networks, ready for you to attack, but they are beta in the sense that it’s our first go at this — we expect to learn and iterate quickly. These networks are also very small (only 4 nodes each!) so should be pretty easy to take down.”
Danny Ryan noted:
“These first two attacknets are very small and should be -pretty- easy to take down. In subsequent attacknets, we’ll ramp up sizes, and make more specific (and more difficult) challenges.”
Note! These first two attacknets are very small and should be -pretty- easy to take down.
In subsequent attacknets, we'll ramp up sizes, and make more specific (and more difficult) challenges
— dannyryan☀️ (@dannyryan) July 20, 2020
This public testnet is purposely made to allow haxors to attack, and it’s meant to run for about three months. This implies that it will operate until October if everything goes as expected.
Progress on Phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0 Has Picked Up
Over the past few months, progress has been recorded on Phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0. The team recently launched a new multiclient testnet on the newer 0.12.1 specification, named Altona.
The testnet is reportedly the last major “devnet” run by Ethereum developers prior to the full-scale testnet for the general public.
The recently launched attack networks are an integral part of the transition. They are incentivized in order to discover potential vulnerabilities and issues that might not be revealed via simple testing.