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South Korean Conglomerate Hyundai’s Cryptocurrency Mining Pool Hacked, Withdrawals Disallowed

Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:08 PM
Joseph Young
Last Updated March 4, 2021 5:08 PM

The mining pool of HDAC, a blockchain platform and company operated by Hyundai BS&C, a subsidiary of South Korea’s biggest car manufacturer and major conglomerate, experienced a hacking attack on May 24 and was forced to halt withdrawals temporarily.

Mining Pool Breach

According to local cryptocurrency media outlet TokenPost, HDAC’s mining pool fell victim to a server breach that led hackers to gain access to the internal system of the mining pool. Earlier today, the HDAC team stated that it is currently recovering the platform from the server hack and until the details of the hack are disclosed, the HDAC team emphasized that withdrawals will be halted.

HyundaiPay, the fintech branch of Hyundai BS&C, told local reports that the HDAC mining pool breach is not related to its operations and said that it is not responsible for the hacking attack on the mining pool, even though HyundaiPay is a subsidiary company of Hyundai BS&C that has been tasked to develop the HDAC platform.

“The cryptocurrency mining pool of HDAC has no connections to HyundaiPay and its ventures. The HyundaiPay team has no knowledge about the security breach and it does not intervene in the operations of the mining pool. The HDAC blockchain itself is not impacted by the breach,” a HyundaiPay spokesperson said.

“Currently, there are 299 individuals in the HDAC cryptocurrency mining pool and not all of the participants have been affected. While HyundaiPay cannot provide exact details in regards to the reach of the hack, the team estimates that the vast majority of miners have been affected.”

Is Hyundai in the Blockchain Sector?

Hyundai is one of the most influential conglomerates in South Korea alongside Samsung, Hanwha, and Lotte. It’s operations are spread across the car manufacturing industry, real estate sector, and other major industries.

According to local reports, since mid-2017, Hyundai has actively been involved in the blockchain sector, developing decentralized applications and blockchain networks with a vision of commercializing blockchain technology in the traditional finance sector.

HDAC, the blockchain project associated with the mining pool, is an VeChain-like blockchain protocol that enables businesses to better utilize blockchain technology and Internet of Things (IoT) to efficiently store, send, and receive data.

“The technology can be applied to smart factories, smart homes, smart buildings, and various industries. Also, M2M transaction for mutual contracts and operation between IoT devices are implemented to bring a platform where rational consumptions and transactions are possible. It is also where we can implement Transaction Innovation,” the HDAC development team explained. 

Despite the recent downturn of the cryptocurrency market, the hype around blockchain technology and open-source decentralized networks like Ethereum is still relatively large. Businesses like Kakao, Naver, SKT, and Hyundai are trying to position themselves at the forefront of blockchain development to commercialize the technology at a large-scale and increase the mainstream adoption of the blockchain.

Featured image from Shutterstock.