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Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted the ICON Foundation’s motion for summary judgment in its long-running legal dispute with Mark Shin. In August 2020, Shin discovered a bug in the Revision 9 update to the ICON Network. Over the course of an 11-hour period, Shin exploited the bug 557 times and induced the Network to erroneously deliver to him ICX tokens. After the Main Validators discovered Shin’s exploit, they took remedial steps to limit its harm, including by releasing a software update (Revision 10).
In response, Shin sued the Foundation claiming that the bug-generated ICX were his property and that the Foundation had interfered with his rights to those tokens and other crypto assets he acquired with them. The Foundation countersued Shin and denied that the bug-generated ICX (or assets traceable thereto) were Shin’s property and alleged that Shin was unjustly enriched by his exploit. In its Order yesterday, the Court agreed with the Foundation and held that Shin (1) has no legitimate claim to the bug-generated ICX; and (2) no right to retain any benefit from his willful exploit of the Network. A copy of the Court’s Order is attached. The decision establishes important rights for decentralized networks, like the ICON Network, to pursue and obtain recovery from those who engage in network exploits.
We believe this is a great result for the ICON Network and the broader crypto industry. We'd like to thank the Validators and the ICON community for your patience and assistance over the years.
Download the full court order here.
