Radix Weekly
Previously: the Weft Finance oracle exploit drained ~27M XRD, the RAC announced Charter ratification had arrived, and the community debated whether adoption work could proceed alongside the DAO transition.
This was the hardest week in Radix's recent memory. A critical bug in the Radix Engine itself allowed an attacker to withdraw bridged hAssets from users' wallets without permission, forcing validators to halt the entire network. The mainnet stayed frozen all week while the RAC coordinated a patch, community members reverse-engineered the attack, and the community wrestled with questions of compensation, trust, and survival.
Radix Engine exploit forces network halt
A critical Radix Engine bug allowed an attacker to withdraw Hyperlane-bridged hAssets from users' wallets without permission. Validators halted the network to contain the damage. projectShift confirmed rolling back the chain is not an option; Timan noted any asset type could have been targeted, though only hAssets were bridged out.
Root cause found in vault reference validation
Community member L reverse-engineered the attack and identified the root cause: the engine's vault reference validation in system_callback.rs gives direct-access references to any vault named in a manifest without verifying ownership, allowing anyone to call take() on other people's vaults. projectShift coordinated with L to share findings with those…
DAO governance step one declared complete
projectShift announced that step one of the DAO is done — covering incorporation, charter, and governance framework ratification. The community is already running Stokenet and assembling a team. This marks the formal transition from Foundation to community governance, even as the network remains halted.
Compensating hack victims divides the room
Seböööl and David proposed redirecting burned XRD fees into a compensation fund for victims, arguing the DAO must take responsibility to retain trust. talifern, btw, and Yeahmad pushed back hard, saying Radix can't afford a bailout, redirecting fees hurts validators, and promising anything before the network is live is premature. No resolution.
Hyperscale developer declines Radix grants
Radoshi Lazymoto announced he will no longer pursue proposals, grants, or ongoing engagements with Radix. foxylady explained flightofthefox wants to build Hyperscale freely without official ties, still intends to deliver and help migrate Babylon's ledger state, and may have testnet ready this year.
Failed transaction fees debated
flightofthefox and projectShift argued all transaction costs must be charged to prevent griefing and denial-of-service, since Radix cannot reliably distinguish malicious from innocent failures. Dezza countered that Algorand's model of not charging for failed transactions proves it's possible, and that at scale the cost is negligible.
- GENKIPOOL proposed replacing token-weighted voting with an address-based system for 2+ year old staking addresses, drawing strong pushback from flightofthefox and projectShift who argued token-weighte
- L announced OTER has pivoted to complement the Radix DAO app rather than compete, serving as an independent vote-counting system with bond functionality.
- Vlad B suggested running code through GPT Astra for review, while Punk recommended designing attack simulations and using TLA+ to distinguish algorithmic from implementation bugs.
- Yeahmad and Radix Superfan criticized the old mod team for using 'FUD' accusations to silence legitimate questions about Xi'an progress, calling it 'cheap gaslighting.'
- Blind5ight argued that scaling alone won't matter unless someone builds a dApp that creates real value, with foxylady suggesting NFT-based ticketing as a practical use case.
- @Andy.XRD reported that police have acknowledged the exploit reports and forensics are underway, with no further details shared to protect the investigation.
Coordinated the network halt response all week, sharing daily updates and confirming the fix is in progress but not yet implemented. Announced DAO step one is complete and urged the community to stop speculating while the patch is prepared, warning that copycat attackers are…
Confirmed the network fix will take at least a few more days and that the bug may not have existed since launch. Helped members experiencing wallet errors directly.
Argued strongly for token-weighted governance over identity-based voting, defended charging for all transactions to prevent griefing, and suggested the engine bug was likely introduced after Hacken's original audit. Confirmed he will no longer pursue Radix grants but still…
No — the network progresses in epochs and stake rewards are given per epoch, so no epoch progress means no rewards given.
The developer room was consumed by the engine exploit. Community member L identified the root cause in system_callback.rs where vault references are validated without ownership checks, and 0xOmarA's forensic analysis of the attacker's hand-written WAT code revealed a sophisticated, careful…
The mood: Shaken to the core but not broken — the community absorbed a devastating engine-level exploit and week-long network halt with grief, frustration, and a fierce determination to push through.