{"id":67709,"date":"2022-09-26T18:38:03","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T15:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=67709"},"modified":"2025-09-07T08:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T05:07:12","slug":"researchers-propose-concept-for-reversible-ethereum-transactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/researchers-propose-concept-for-reversible-ethereum-transactions\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Propose Concept for Reversible Ethereum Transactions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A group of researchers from Stanford has proposed a concept for new Ethereum token standards\u2014ERC-20R and ERC-721R. They are designed to enable reversibility of a transaction in the event of asset theft.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Billions in crypto stolen. If we can\u2019t stop the thefts, can we reduce the harmful effects?<\/p>\n<p>Over recent months, a couple other <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Stanford?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Stanford<\/a> researchers and I drew out and prototyped ERC-20R\/721R to support reversible transactions on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Ethereum?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Ethereum<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>See post &#038; \ud83e\uddf5:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/38Hs0F9goU\">https:\/\/t.co\/38Hs0F9goU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 kaili.eth (@kaili_jenner) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaili_jenner\/status\/1573727505491673088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 24, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Under the proposal, governance of a smart contract would be carried out by a &#8216;decentralized structure&#8217; via voting. The victim can provide evidence and request a freeze of stolen assets, after which a quorum will render a decision.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">4\/ Step 2: The decentralized court of judges quickly vote to either accept or reject the freeze, based on preliminary evidence.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 kaili.eth (@kaili_jenner) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaili_jenner\/status\/1573727511300669446?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 24, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIf the reversal of [the transaction] is agreed, the frozen funds are sent back to the victim. Justice is restored,\u201d wrote one of the researchers, Kaili Wan.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">7\/ Step 5 (last step): If reversal was agreed upon, the frozen funds are sent back to the victim. Justice is restored. <br \/>(See green in example transaction graph below) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/spwI4kff6g\">pic.twitter.com\/spwI4kff6g<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 kaili.eth (@kaili_jenner) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaili_jenner\/status\/1573727518401626113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 24, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The idea, she noted, is merely a proposal for discussion. In her words, this is not an initiative to turn irreversible transactions reversible.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThis is a discussion about a new potential type of token, first proposed four years ago,\u201d she added, revisiting Vitalik Buterin&#8217;s 2018 post.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Gonna mass-address other comments:<br \/>\u2014 If you think this is an incomplete solution, you\u2019re entirely correct. Our paper provides some pieces of the puzzle (focuses on the mechanics), but we mention many open questions surrounding decentralized gov. That space needs work.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 kaili.eth (@kaili_jenner) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kaili_jenner\/status\/1573935469238403072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 25, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The idea was not well received by the community, who noted that it contradicts the essence of cryptocurrency. CEO of Streams, Kieran Daniels, called it &#8216;incredibly bad&#8217;.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">This is an incredibly bad idea that won\u2019t work and against the entire point of cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 kierandaniels.eth (@kieran_eth) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kieran_eth\/status\/1573816646535299072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 24, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Representatives of the mobile Ethereum wallet Argent noted that the problem could be addressed by other solutions that keep crypto truly permissionless: native account abstraction and the mass adoption of smart contract wallets<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">it&#8217;s an interesting idea but can be solved through other means that keep crypto truly permissionless: native account abstraction and the mass adoption of smart contract wallets<\/p>\n<p>we can do things like:<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 fraud monitoring<br \/>\u2014 multisig for everyone<br \/>\u2014 social recovery<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Argent (@argentHQ) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/argentHQ\/status\/1573973634917568517?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 25, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Co-founder <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-the-tornado-cash-mixer-and-why-was-it-sanctioned\">Tornado Cash<\/a> Roman Semenov expressed concerns about reversibility of transactions and compatibility with decentralized applications.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">So how does this work when an attacker steals ERC-20R and cashes out to ETH via a DEX in the same transaction? Or ERC-20R will be incompatible with the current DeFi ecosystem? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/n5pN82ZBBe\">https:\/\/t.co\/n5pN82ZBBe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Roman Semenov \ud83c\udf2a\ufe0f (@semenov_roman_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/semenov_roman_\/status\/1574066235356110849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 25, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cSo, how does this work when an attacker steals ERC-20R and cashes out ETH through a decentralized exchange (DEX) in the same transaction? Or will ERC-20R be incompatible with the current DeFi ecosystem?\u201d, he asked.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In September, attackers <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/hackers-stole-about-3-3-million-through-vulnerability-in-profanity-ethereum-address-generator\">stole about $3.3 million<\/a> in cryptocurrency from Ethereum users who generated addresses via the Profanity tool.<\/p>\n<p>The issue was first spotted on GitHub as early as January, but it became widely known thanks to the 1inch Network team.<\/p>\n<p>Later the exploit was used to steal <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/experts-tie-wintermutes-160-million-hack-to-vanity-address-generator-vulnerability\">$160 million<\/a> from market maker Wintermute.<\/p>\n<p>On September 26, PeckShield analysts recorded the theft of ~732 ETH ($950,000) from an Ethereum address created using the Profanity generator.<\/p>\n<p>Read ForkLog&#8217;s Bitcoin news in our <a href=\"https:\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\" target=\"\"_blank\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Telegram<\/a> \u2014 cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of researchers from Stanford has presented the concept of new Ethereum token standards\u2014ERC-20R and ERC-721R. They are intended to introduce a reversibility option in case of asset theft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[46,649],"class_list":["post-67709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-ethereum","tag-standards"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"15","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67711,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67709\/revisions\/67711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}