Gnosis Completes Hard Fork to Recover Balancer Exploit Funds - Unchained

The Gnosis Chain executed a hard fork earlier this week to recover around $9.4 million in funds frozen after the November Balancer exploit.

Operators activated the fork at 11:11 am ET on Dec. 22 following governance approval, revoking hacker control and enabling fund return to users by Christmas.

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Validators face penalties like suspended rewards or slashing for not upgrading nodes within ten days.

The move, only announced by the Gnosis team early Tuesday morning, sparked debate on blockchain immutability versus user protection.

Critics like pseudonymous DeFi analyst Ignas saying the hard-fork would set precedents for other chains to follow.

“Anyone who criticizes this is wrong. Taking a stand and fighting back is the right thing to do,” said prominent Ethereum builder Joseph Schiarizzi on X.