These Developers Are Forking Their Coin after FTX Disaster

The Solana ecosystem has been making headlines over the past week amid the troubles facing the FTX exchange. Solana developers recently created new code for forking Serum, a decentralized exchange software built within the protocol allowing users to trade cryptocurrencies.

Serum developers fork their coin

A report on Twitter had said that Solana developers believe that Serum could have been compromised as part of a broader breach on FTX, adding that it needed to undergo a fork to protect users.

Serum is a protocol created by FTX, and it was used by many decentralized applications on the Solana blockchain. A source had earlier revealed that Solana had removed Serum DEX routes and Sollet-wrapped tokens from the in-wallet swapper amid the recent attack on the FTX exchange.

The Solana developers have vowed to take all the appropriate measures to protect users as they continue to monitor the situation. A Mango Max reporter said that Solana users had not shared adequate information on the matter because they had no clue about the developments.

The serum program update key was not controlled by the SRM DAO, but by a private key connected to FTX. At this moment no one can confirm, who controls this key and hence has the power to update the serum program, possibly deploying malicious code. (2)

— Mango Max 🅱️🧑‍🌾🥭🦀 (@m_schneider) November 13, 2022

It is alleged that a private key associated with FTX was in control of the Serum upgrade key but not the Serum decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Moreover, there is no clarity about the person still holding the private key, which raises the need to upgrade it.

Solana token plunges amid the FTX crisis

Solana’s native token (SOL) has been bearish since news of the FTX crisis started. The former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, was one of the earliest investors in Solana, and he was a big champion for the ecosystem.

SOL has plunged 55% over the past week, making it one of the greatest losers over the past week. In the last 24 hours, Sol has managed to stage a slight recovery after gaining 7.2% amid a recovery across the broader market. The recent drop has affected Solana’s positioning, and it now ranks as the 15^th-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $5.24 billion.

Before its demise, Solana was receiving much adoption. Google Cloud announced it was running a validator on the Solana blockchain. The SOL token recorded a gain after this announcement. Google is planning to place the Blockchain Node Engine on the Solana Network.

Before the recent events, Solana had also reached a deal to migrate the Helium Network into its blockchain. Helium announced that it would be moving to Solana to achieve scalability.

Solana uses a proof-of-history consensus, and it is touted as one of the fastest blockchains in the crypto industry and even touted as an “Ethereum Killer.” After its inception, Solana received much support from investors, including FTX Ventures. Therefore, the collapse of FTX has raised concerns about the future of the Solana ecosystem. The ecosystem has already been criticized over the level of centralization and multiple outages that have happened this year.

Related

• Best Places to stake the Solana SOL Tokens (2022)
• Solana Aims at Breaking Higher Resistance, Massive Gains on TAMA
• Solana weathers the FTX storm as SOL rises; RobotEra presale