Griff Green, a spokesman for Slock.it, the team which founded the DAO, says in an interview with Cointelegraph that he is privy to some of the pool operator’s discussions and they “very much back the soft fork.”
However, he doubts pool operators are willing to go on record and publicly support the fork.
Responding to potential suggestions of negotiation with the attacker, Green stated:
“I'm not personally open to negotiations because with a hard fork we can get all of the ETH back to the people who were attacked.”
He further added: “I think there is a general consensus in the Ethereum community that a soft fork is easy” and “[t]he Ethereum community has banded together to make this happen.”
We have received only one response from pool operators, Dwarfpool, which, in reply to our question on whether they support the fork proposed by Vitalik Buterin, Dwarfpool’s Admin stated: “We are still learning about DAO incident.”
In providing a time estimate of when we are to expect the fork to merge and activate, Green stated:
“The code is written and being tested as we speak for multiple clients including the geth client which is the one used by 85% of the miners (or more). Parity was the first to do it and Gavin Wood has been working tirelessly to make this all right. I estimate a few days or a week.”
The Ethereum community is running to a tight deadline following one of the biggest hacks in the digital currency space. A recursive call bug was exploited to appropriate 3.6 million ethereum, sending the price crashing down by almost 50% for Ethereum and almost 70% for the DAO.
Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, proposed a soft fork to freeze the DAO to be followed by a hardfork to send all the funds to a new contract address where token holders can withdraw their balance.
Green states:
“The hard fork would fix this completely without affecting the rest of the ecosystem, the Ethereum blockchain chain is structured differently then Bitcoin's; we do not have to undo unrelated transactions. Since no ETH that the DAO received ever exited the system of DAOs that were created (a genius security precaution by Christoph Jentzsch) the DAO Token Holders would be able to get back their stolen funds without affecting the rest of the ecosystem one iota.”
Opinion is split on the fork proposal, with 52% of 600 polled Cointelegraph readers stating they in favour and 48% against. To sway opinion, the alleged DAO attacker has stated that he will offer miners one million ether through a smart contract to oppose the fork.
However, the majority of ethereans seem resolute in backing Buterin and the wider etherean development community in what will most likely be a defining moment for Ethereum and an event that will shape its future.
Griff Green Fails to Take Responsibility in Full Interview Transcript
The following interview took part yesterday with Griff Green, a spokesman for Slock.it, the team that founded the DAO. Any modifications are only cosmetic.
Andrew Quentson (AQ): Hi, any update? Have you/eth devs entered into any negotiations with the hacker?
Griff Green: Nope. Philisophically I believe all criminals were victims first and we (Slock.it) are looking for solutions. Not more victims.
AQ: What sort of offer would you make them?
GG: I'm not personally open to negotiations because with a hard fork we can get all of the ETH back to the people who were attacked.
AQ: I've emailed some pool operators, not sure if or when they'll respond. Do they back the fork?
GG: I am privy to some of their discussions and they for the most part are taking a calm analytical approach. They very much back the soft fork and will talk about the hard fork over the next week.
AQ: They willing to go on record?
GG: I doubt it. But I think there is a general consensus in the Ethereum community that a soft fork is easy.
AQ: Any time estimate for the soft fork upgrade?
GG: The code is written and being tested as we speak for multiple clients including the geth client which is the one used by 85% of the miners (or more). Parity was the first to do it and Gavin Wood has been working tirelessly to make this all right. I estimate a few days or a week. The Ethereum community has banded together to make this happen. After that the hard fork discussion will continue.
AQ: You taking any action to protect the remaining ether?
GG: Our security guys, Lefteris and Colm are working with some Curators and community members to make sure that if the DAO starts leaking funds again they will be recoverable, but in the interest of security for their operation that's all I can say. Sorry I'm on a train going thru the German countryside my wifi come in and out
AQ: No worries. This was just published, a lot to take in I'm sure, but once you read it, what are your comments on it?
GG: I didn't read it but I would not be surprised to see people wanting to take credit for the heist.
AQ: I know you're still trying to resolve the situation, but what do you honestly and genuinely think went wrong?
GG: The hard fork would fix this completely without affecting the rest of the ecosystem, the Ethereum blockchain chain is structured differently then Bitcoin's; we do not have to undo unrelated transactions.
Since no ETH that the DAO received ever exited the system of DAOs that were created (a genius security precaution by Christoph Jentzsch) the DAO Token Holders would be able to get back their stolen funds without affecting the rest of the ecosystem one iota.
I gotta go. Thx for the chance to answer some awesome questions.
AQ: I believe you claimed there was an audit.
Ok, just wanted to ask, I mean I can tomorrow as well, but many people are criticising the slock.it team, what do you have to say to them?
AQ asked earlier today “[J]ust wondered if you wished to answer those last three questions?”, but has not received a response.