By providing MPC technology, the partnerships greatly enhance security measures when compared to single private keys or typical multisig systems. In reaction to a recent security compromise involving $10 million in user cash, Fireblocks and Ancilia have teamed with Alex Lab’s Bitcoin bridge, XLink.
Multiparty computation (MPC) technology will be incorporated into XLink’s wallet and smart contract management through the partnership with Fireblocks.
Alex’s co-founder and CEO, Chiente Hsu, provided an explanation in a written Q&A: With one key held by the Bitcoin Oracle validator network (which verifies the XLink bridging events), another key held by Fireblocks, and a third key held by Coincover, which offers the disaster recovery service, the partnership with Fireblocks will implement two-of-three multiparty computation wallets to hold all these user assets.
Through its collaboration with Web3 security company Ancilia, XLink will be able to offer continuous monitoring, real-time threat identification, immediate notifications, and proactive breach prevention methods.
Hsu clarified that a private key breach with “admin access” to a smart contract containing user assets was the “source of the hack,” stating that: “We have been planning to partner with Fireblocks to bring maximum security to our user assets for some time. The original plan was to roll it out in late June, but due to the recent incident, we are accelerating its deployment.”
On June 17, the team published a security update in which they disclosed that over 9,700 transactions had been publicised by the hacker who caused the vulnerability.
As new wallet addresses were generated to distribute the stolen Stacks (STX) assets, traceable transactions increased from 300 to over 10,000 without showing any indications of slowing down, according to the X article. In just seven days, the attacker’s unique address count increased from fewer than 100 to over 4,700 addresses. Thousands of new addresses receive smaller amounts of STX, which are subsequently forwarded to CEXs.
The new alliance between Fireblocks and Ancilia is a component of XLink’s larger plan to enhance asset management and security on the Bitcoin bridge. Additionally, in order to include MPC technology and “establish new security standards in the blockchain industry,” XLink has partnered with Cobo, a supplier of digital asset custody.
XLink is still committed to providing secure Bitcoin usefulness on several blockchains by means of its omnichain liquidity network.