Ethereum's Future in Limbo: $1.5B Bybit Hack Sparks Rollback Debate

Ethereum's future hangs in the balance following a record-breaking $1.5 billion hack on Bybit, with some suggesting a rollback to mitigate the damage. The unprecedented breach, described as a "black swan event," has sparked debate within the Ethereum community about the potential for a rollback, similar to the one that occurred in 2016 following the DAO hack.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has proposed a rollback, arguing that Ethereum should follow the precedent set in 2016 when a hard fork was implemented to counteract a major security breach. Hayes believes that the magnitude of the Bybit hack, the largest in crypto history, warrants a similar response. However, the suggestion has been met with resistance from some Ethereum developers, who argue that a rollback violates the principles of decentralization and immutability.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou has reached out to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, asking whether there is anything the Ethereum Foundation can do to minimize the impact of the breach. Zhou acknowledges that any actions taken would require the approval of the Ethereum community. In an online event on February 22, Zhou expressed uncertainty about the possibility of a rollback, stating that it may require a voting process to determine the community's wishes.

The 2016 DAO attack, which resulted in the theft of around $60 million worth of Ethereum, prompted a hard fork that effectively rolled back the blockchain. However, some argue that the comparison between the DAO hack and the Bybit breach is flawed, as the DAO hack had a 30-day intervention period, whereas the Bybit hack has already been finalized. Additionally, the term "rollback" was not used in 2016, with developers referring to the event as an "irregular state transition."

The possibility of North Korea using the stolen funds to proliferate nuclear weapons and the sheer magnitude of the hack have raised concerns within the Ethereum community. Shortly after the attack, multiple transactions were made to move assets off the Bybit platform. The mETH protocol released a post-mortem report detailing the hack, revealing that mETH was used to swap stolen tokens. The mETH team blacklisted the attackers' address and placed the recovered tokens into a safe address.

The Bybit hack has left many crypto holders concerned about their tokens, with some drawing parallels to