This past week, we wrote to inform you about a hack at the KUCOIN cryptocurrency marketplace that resulted in the theft of more than $150m worth of tokens, including 26m PRESEARCH PRE tokens.
In addition to our discussions with Kucoin, we reached out to Probit and HitBTC to notify them of the theft and were successful in halting the deposit of the stolen tokens before the hackers could deposit or sell them, minimizing the damage to the affected users and the project as a whole.
Since then, our team has been busy reviewing available options to restore the stolen PRE to KuCoin users, and we have decided that we will, in fact, move forward with a token swap.
The token swap will take place next week and will happen automatically for all users. All users’ blockchain wallets holding PRE (other than the hacker’s wallet) are currently eligible for the token swap.
Since deposits to exchanges are currently unavailable, our expectation is that the stolen PRE will remain isolated from legitimate users’ PRE transactions, but we cannot guarantee this. As a result, any PRE transactions between now and the token swap will be handled on a case-by-case basis, as any downstream transactions involving the stolen funds will not be eligible for the token swap.
As a precaution, we recommend minimizing any on-blockchain PRE token transfers until after the token swap in order to avoid the possibility of becoming ineligible for the token swap.
Those who hold their PRE on the Presearch.org site as rewards, purchased, or staked tokens will not need to take any action, other than waiting until the swap is complete to withdraw their tokens.
Those who hold their PRE in a blockchain wallet will have the replacement tokens ‘airdropped’ into their wallets at no charge and with no further action required.
We will request that wallet providers and information services point to the new PRE contract automatically so that only a refresh of your balance will be required. You may have to manually point to the new contract in wallets such as METAMASK and MyEtherWallet that are populated manually. Instructions on how to do this will follow in a subsequent post.
Those who hold their PRE on KuCoin and Probit will not need to take further action, and once withdrawals are reopened on those services, will be able to redeem their PRE account balances for the replacement tokens.
We are still working to determine how to provide replacement tokens to HitBTC users and will communicate that process as soon as it is decided.
Further instructions will be provided when the swap is completed to ensure all users are able to access their Presearch tokens once they become available.
Until then, we ask for, and appreciate your continued patience and support.
While this unfortunate security incident at KuCoin is an inconvenience for all of us Presearchers, and has forced our team to divert technical and financial resources to address the situation, we believe that the project will come out further ahead after completing the token swap.
The new PRE token smart contract will include additional protection mechanisms to help the project handle future security incidents such as the KuCoin event, and will also enable the Presearch smart contract to better interact with decentralized platforms.
We believe that these upgrades will make the token swap a net positive for the project and strengthen both the protections and functionality for our users, resulting in a brighter future for Presearch and our amazing community.
We will continue to communicate further details around the token swap process as it progresses, and will be undertaking a security audit of the new token early next week, following which the replacement PRE will be distributed. We anticipate that the token swap will occur within 7 days of this announcement, and will keep you posted with progress updates.
Please keep an eye on our Twitter account at https://twitter.com/presearchnews and on our Telegram channel at https://t.me/presearchnews.
Should you have any questions, please post them in our community Telegram group found at https://t.me/presearch or send an email to [email protected].
Thanks again for your support as we overcome this challenge and ensure that Presearch is well-positioned for the level of success we all aspire to and expect.
We are excited to wrap up the token swap as soon as possible and continue executing on our roadmap and the deployment of Presearch nodes and our new search experience.
Onward and upward!
Team Presearch
