Poof, it\u2019s gone.<\/em> The money is gone. Technically, it\u2019s still there, but gone.<\/p>\n

Micah Johnson\u2019s NFT project failed after an exploit where people lost over $34 million. There was an issue with the smart contract which resulted in a huge loss to the holders.<\/p>\n

Micah Johnson<\/strong> created the Akutars Project when a black boy asked if there could be any black astronauts. Micah collaborated with Pusha-T<\/strong> and Upscale Vandal<\/strong> to create a new design scheme and perspective for the Akuverse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Akutars Project was set to release on April 22<\/strong>, making it Micah Johnson\u2019s biggest NFT project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Akutars Project<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Akutars Projects, there would be 15,000 unique NFTs<\/strong> ready to be sold via the Duction Auction method. (The Duction Auction method is where the auction starts at the highest amount and it gradually decreases until someone finally buys it)<\/p>\n

The starting price was set at 3.5 ETH<\/strong> which would decrease by 0.1 ETH<\/strong> every 6 minutes. Still, there were a lot of people who couldn\u2019t wait for the price to drop; they submitted thousands of transactions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Launch (Spoiler Alert \u2013 It didn\u2019t go well)<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the Launch day came, the collectors rushed to the website hoping to own rare ones before everyone else, but there was a problem. Those who took part in the drop, lost their money as the amount was locked in the project smart contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Due to a vulnerability in the smart contract, $34 Million<\/strong> is now locked and nowhere near to be recovered.<\/p>\n

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$34 million, or 11,539 eth, is permanently locked into the AkuDreams contract forever. It cannot be retrieved by individual users or by the dev team.<\/p>\n
The refund processing, which is complete, sets each bid status to 1. pic.twitter.com\/6GnQPnddC6<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 foobar (@0xfoobar) April 23, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Could They Have Fixed the Issue and Stop the $34 Million Loss?<\/strong><\/p>\n
A Popular NFT Community member \u201cHasan\u201d<\/strong> raised his concern about a potential vulnerability in the Akutars Project Smart Contract. The Akutars development team did take notice but they were confident that their system had fail-safes ready to tackle any potential error.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was someone else who did take notice and took advantage of the vulnerability. USER221<\/strong>, a hacker, halted refunds and withdrawals from the Akutars smart contract which resulted in this huge loss. Now, 11,539 ETH (~ $34M) is locked in the smart contract.<\/strong><\/p>\n
USER221 promised to unlock the money if the Akutars Project development team publicly acknowledged their mistake and admit there was an issue in the smart contract. Unfortunaltely, the $34M is locked in the smart contract. Neither the Akutars team nor USER221 can unlock the 11,539 ETH locked in the project\u2019s smart contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Had the development team listened to what Hasan was saying, the lost could\u2019ve been avoided. Unfortunately, the team wasn\u2019t transparent enough with the community which result in huge loss of money and public\u2019s trust.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Will the Public Trust NFTs?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Now that there has been a worry some NFT projects failing, the public will likely lose trust. The developers should learn from mistakes like these and get ready to put efforts to gain the public\u2019s trust, again.<\/p>\n
The $34M locked in the smart contract is still stuck there \u2013 most likely irrecoverable. Although, the dev team has assured the early collectors that they will be issued refunds. But what about the others? What will they get? Nothing? Will the community ever trust them again?<\/p>\n
These questions still remain!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n