It is in times of trial and tribulation that one's true mettle shines through, just before Christmas Day 2020, the Blurt blockchain was subject to a vulnerability attack where malicious actors repeatedly executed a transaction that we failed to add to the fee structure, they repeated this over using 32 accounts to post these operations to the Blurt blockchain every 3 seconds and inflating the chain size with over 200 MB of data per day, this even escalated to over 60 operations per 3-second block at the height of the attack.
Witnesses could have performed a Hard Fork to add fees to that transaction but hard forks are dangerous, the chain is the most unstable then and vulnerable to takeover, instead, we decided to took the arduous but safer route of first securing the chain in a VPN and allowing only traffic from trusted nodes.
This attack mitigation was done in uncharted territory, a world-first for a DPoS chain to be wrapped in a VPN, alot of it required testing and refactoring, @jacobgadikian and I spent circa 11 days of our holidays trying to get this right, we, however, were not alone, we had a fantastic witness set that was ready and willing to update their nodes at short notice when new builds were ready and software tweaks were required.
A few individuals went above and beyond the call of duty and we hereby acknowledge, honour and reward them.
@blurthispano - "Scout's Honour"- If it wasn't for Blurthispano, we might not have found out about this anomaly until days later, he was setting up his witness and noticed these strange transactions in the logs and reported them in the witness channel. He also served as an active witness and was very attentive in updating his witness nodes and remaining in daily communication with the team.
Reward: 20 000 Blurt Power
@freakeao - "Scout's Honour" - Also reported the anomaly, he found and reported the comment farming which lead to the discovery of a vote trail and many more accounts with a similar prefix. @freakeao is also the only witness to be running a homebrew setup instead of using cloud services, this is extremely valuable to test as a use case for edge-of-network consensus. Similarly, he was always on deck and responsive to updates.
Reward: 20 000 Blurt Power
@eastmael - "Special Ops" - While the above two witnesses shared the problem in the witness chat, it was @eastmael that reported it to the direct attention of the founders and ensured action was taken. He also coded up a script that helped us identify 1078 related accounts that could be attack vectors, in addition to the ones we had already identified. Like the others he two participated in updating his witness in a timely manner to help mitigate the attack.
Reward: 25 000 Blurt Power
@yehey - "Intelligence" - Co-operated 100% with @jacobgadikian and allowed us root access to his servers to investigate logs that led to greater clarity on the attack and solve the final pieces of the puzzle for the defence. He showed trust and loyalty to the cause with his transparency and willingness to help.
Reward: 25 000 Blurt Power
@saboin - "Sergeant Major" - There is no mistake that @saboin sacrificed an immense amount of time in this endeavour, over and above the call of duty, he was helping out every day in a practice fashion, giving input from his personal experience witb firewalls and sysadmin, he acted as 2IC to Jacob and I without being asked, he was available to help other witnesses who had issues upgrading and was up till all hours of the morning in his timezone, he too sacrificed a great deal of his holidays, and went back to his day job on the Monday following the weekend of the final attack mitigation. If it wasn't for his skills and input the process would have taken much longer and his hands-on-deck approach was a morale booster to all, including the founders. For his uncountable contributions and insight to the attack mitigation, we hereby bestow upon @saboin the highest reward.
Reward: 100 000 Blurt Power
We also thank the community for being patient and for remaining calm and positive, we believe overall this was a team effort and we are back on track due to the resilience and character of the greater members of our community.
In thanks and Sincerity,
Ricardo Ferreira
@megadrive
Blurt Co-Founder
On behalf of the Hispanic community, we want to thank you for taking us into consideration. Everything reported is part of our work and thank God it has already been solved. Blurt will soon go to the moon and we will have the best infrastructure and social network that is talked about
Bravo!
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my god. Gracias. Thank You
Thanks very much for the recognition! It was an honour to work with all of the top witnesses.
I'm looking forward to Blurt 2.0 with the new codebase. I should find out about joining the testnet.
So it doesn't exist just yet but well I guess there is one on my laptop...
Let's make it exist!
DO TELL US WHEN YOU START TESTING...!!!
Thank you for the recognition. The reason I moved to Blurt is because of the injustice it received when it received its cock attacks. People behind these attacks are malicious and have no clear intention of doing good to the chain. I believe that there will be a day of reckoning.
blurt is a great platform , it treats everyone equally irrespective of anything.
and that's the beauty of the platform we see here.
we don't say bad about other platforms so people here are also nice.
@megadrive and @jacobgadikain
We are not done yet. We will make it better, reliable and provide freedom of speech for everyone.
I feel incredibly happy to read this! This is how a teamwork shoud look, with this kind of common effort we could eradicate any issues that could happen in the future, also I feel really good to know that we're making the work in a really awesome way because when you're shinig a lot, there always gonna be people that's going to try to put you down and overcome that light.
This will be a great year for Blurt, I feel it and I feel really grateful for this whole team that take care of the issue: @freakeao, @blurthispano, @megadrive, @jacobgadikian, @saboin, @yehey, @eastmael you're totally awesome guys!
Let's keep growing!
Could not agree more! Well said!!
Thank you.
congratulations to @saboin for the highest rewards , @jacobgadikian , @yehey and @eastmael for second highest and @freakeao and @blurthispano as well.
Keep it up everyone 🙂.
Hard work paid off.
Indeed , no doubt.
This was an incredible effort. Thank you so much for keeping Blurt going. @megadrive @jacobgadikian @blurthispano @freakeao @eastmael @yehey and @saboin
Your support is always there.
That is very nice that you are giving away these rewards!
Thanks again to all!
Always highly appreciated a recognition like this. Hard work paid off.
Blurt is a amazing platform and behind the scene you all have worked hard. I feel lucky to be one of the early user of this amazing platform.
Thank you so much everyone.
And congratulations to @jacobgadikian @blurthispano @freakeao @eastmael @yehey and @saboin for rewards.
Thank you for believing.
😊😊😊😊😊
Congratulations to everyone, @megadrive @jacobgadikian @blurthispano @freakeao @eastmael @yehey @saboin, this team is incredible so I can't repeat enough that the people at Blurt don't get it anywhere else, they are simply wonderful.
This is why I love Blurt!
Thank you for your support.
thank u team and all witnesses for everything
@megadrive @jacobgadikian @blurthispano @freakeao @eastmael @yehey and @saboin.
thank you
You're welcome, and we grow together.
Congratulation to all the witnesses of k20.
I don't know there names but thank you everyone for what you all are doing and have already done for this platform.
congrats to :
@jacobgadikian
@freakeao
@eastmael
@yehey
@saboin
@blurthispano
Thank you
Cheers to you.
You don't have to give a silver medal. Must give gold medal.
Great initiative taken. Keep up your good work. I also curate personally. I hope @megadrive also noticed that.🙏😊❤️👍
Everyone did an excellent job, that shows once again that teamwork is a great strength. Congratulations to all.
Yeah, thanks to everyone. I was also setting up a new witness within the VPN and thanks to the patience of @saboin got my "almost working" setup to finally click into gear :-)
While Blurt seemed down, a small group of us were working round the clock. Was quite nerve-wracking at times, hoping not to crash the chain - a bit like trying to change a flat tyre while still driving! ;-)
Thank you very much @megadrive @jacobgadikian @blurthispano @freakeao @eastmael @yehey and @saboin !!
Felicito a todo el equipo de testigos que estuvieron luchando con esto, en situaciones difíciles, mientras más unidos mejor. Adelante y mucha Fé en Dios que todo irá para mejor. Saludos con cariño desde Venezuela. Thank you
@jacobgadikian
@freakeao
@eastmael
@yehey
@saboin
@blurthispano
Wow.
Great team on behalf of many users, thank you for all the effort you made to get our platform up and running again.
Congratulations to all.
@megadrive, @jacobgadikian, @freakeao, @blurthispano, @saboin, @yehey, @eastmael
Congratulations to everyone who was part of this.....
An incredible job was done at full speed, congratulations on all that you did and we appreciate all your efforts. Saw great teamwork, that's what you have to do to be successful. Congratulations to all the people who have been working very hard to solve the problem.
Grazie per lo splendilo lavoro che fate! Saluti by kork75.
I have only recently decided to hop onto Blurt and I must say that I am ever glad I did. Everyone here is so proactive in the growth of this space which is so refreshing by comparison to other blogging blockchain platforms. On top of that, the general levels of positivity here are awesome!!!!
Oi!, I will salute these new medal holders. My praises and congratulations. All the best, long live for blurt :)
My goodness, those attackers were having fiestas as they thought they could destroy Blurt. I believe they will try it again! My great appreciation for the Blurt Team, Devs and Witnesses who amazingly stopped those attackers. I know you are all working hard to keep the Blurt Blockchain safe.
Thank you so much guys, KUDOS to all of you especially to all those who are working behind the scene.
Congratulations to all of us in BLURT platform.
Kudos to @saboin, @jacobgadikian , @yehey and @eastmael, @freakeao and @blurthispano.
You made us proud. Congratulations on your reward.
It seems to me that Blurt's witnesses along with the co-founders of the platform have done a great job in ensuring the stability and continuity of the platform.
But above all I value the fact that a first class reference like you make this gesture public and reward those who deserve it.
But above all things I want all this to come to the knowledge of the community, a community that sometimes stays away from all these events and only cares about publishing content, among which I include myself.
A little bit out of ignorance and a little bit to not waste any more time.
It is fair that those who do are rewarded and valued as such
Greetings and thank you for sharing this information @megadrive.
My special thanks for the work developed to: @jacobgadikian @blurthispano @freakeao @eastmael @yehey and @saboin
Thanks to all of you for the sacrifices. Remember, people who play dirty will never win, and y'all at the right track.
Oh, that were the reason why I could not access the blurt web, I thought it was on my end
Thank you to all of you for your efforts. It's refreshing to see the teamwork from all of you with the transparent detailing of what role each of you played. This is what leadership is about and is what will make this project such a success in the years to come.
Wow! Really great. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much @megadrive for making this place the best. We support you with my friends .
God bless everyone!
Congratulations to you and your team because all these could be achieved because of the unity and hard work being exhibited by the team. And congratulations to the whole Blurt Community as a whole. God bless.
We are happy!
Deserved recognition, when a fighter is on his knees defending their honorable positions, I congratulate you and thank you for saving and keeping Blurt on his feet. Happy 2021 and may the success and growth of Blurt continue, we count on you
Esta cadena ha demostrado estar llena de gente valiosa que la mantiene en pie ante cualquier ataque y no puedo evitar pensar que esos ataques son muestra de que quieren destruir algo valioso, porque de no ser así qué sentido tendría. Dedicar tiempo para intentar fracturar a Blurt es reconocer la fortaleza y el potencial que tiene. Mis más sinceras felicitaciones a todos estos héroes incondicionales de Blurt, gracias por mantener a salvo a este valioso bebé.
Saludos.
Congratulations to all of you, for all that hard work you all did, you all deserved this, thanks guys.
We have seen a lots of troll and fun about the blurt blockchain in various discord channels around the down-time of the blockchains front ends. TBH, I was also disappointed because I just started a month ago with a great hope for the blurt. I used to check the sites whenever I opened my laptop to see if they were back or not.
Looks like the team members and those witnesses mentioned here weren't sitting idle. Rather they tried and tried until the problem was solved. Claps for them. They deserved these medals of honor.
Congratulations to all of you, and thank you for making this platform more great.
@jacobgadikian
@freakeao
@eastmael
@yehey
@saboin
@blurthispano
Congratulations to everyone for such well-deserved commemorations and rewards! Thank you for all your efforts to repair the damage done and keep Blurt active. Good vibes!
This is massive for you all... Congrats
This would speak well of all of you
Bravo news
Thanks for the great work. Let's make a great community here :)
Wow
Firstly, I want to congratulate all the awardees also for their contributions towards blurt,...its a wakup call to all of us to work together as a team, we can take blurt to the moon🚀, we aint relenting, together we will push #blurt to #1.
Our strength is enough to defeat every attack against our lovable blurt!!
💪💪 together we are much stronger
Mr. Thank you very much for confirming to us all the information about your Blurt blog. We always expect that from you. In your efforts, everything is fine again as before. We got a chance to work again. Thank you so much for that. Good luck to you sir.
How to power up BLURT? blurt.buzz interface doesn't let me do that, or transfer any tokens.
I am very happy to work on this platform because I understand that working on this platform will take the platform a long way. I enjoy working here. I hope I will go a long way by working on this platform with your blessings. Please help me.
Sir I am extremely happy working on this platform. Sir I want to work on this platform and go a long way please help me.