{"id":354683,"date":"2021-10-19T02:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/arbitrage-bots-spam-attack-on-the-polygon-network-generated-6800-per-day\/"},"modified":"2021-10-19T02:30:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T23:30:00","slug":"arbitrage-bots-spam-attack-on-the-polygon-network-generated-6800-per-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/arbitrage-bots-spam-attack-on-the-polygon-network-generated-6800-per-day\/","title":{"rendered":"# Arbitrage bot\u2019s spam attack on the Polygon network generated $6,800 per day"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a26bc0eae506\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a26bc0eae506\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/arbitrage-bots-spam-attack-on-the-polygon-network-generated-6800-per-day\/#The_bot_filled_each_block_with_%E2%80%9Cmeaningless_transactions%E2%80%9D\" >The bot filled each block with \u201cmeaningless transactions\u201d<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/arbitrage-bots-spam-attack-on-the-polygon-network-generated-6800-per-day\/#The_bot_netted_6800_in_average_daily_profit\" >The bot netted $6,800 in average daily profit<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong># Arbitrage bot\u2019s spam attack on the Polygon network generated $6,800 per day <\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content\" data-v-128018ef>The growth of layer-two protocols has been one of the major stories of 2021 as the rising popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFT) have driven transaction costs higher on the Ethereum (ETH) network effectively pricing out many participants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year the Polygon network, formerly known as MATIC, emerged as one of the top contenders in the race for an effective Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, and the project&#8217;s QuickSwap DeFi platform was also one of the more successful Uniswap clones.<\/p>\n<p>The platform was quite popular initially but as other platforms like Arbitrum and Optimism popped up, discussions about Polygon fell to the wayside and some traders even refer to the platform as &#8220;slow&#8221;. Data from Flipside Crypto shows that the low-cost capabilities of the Polygon network came under attack after a cleverly devised arbitrage bot managed turn 14 Ether in 218.5 Ether in less than four months. <\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_bot_filled_each_block_with_%E2%80%9Cmeaningless_transactions%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>The bot filled each block with \u201cmeaningless transactions\u201d<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>According to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mirror.xyz\/0xB551E3E62b14674C8dD6b0B173AC23D4e98Cb791\/T-DlnwfiDSQnWnbgBocTfxYmkByUFW5SeGgd520H9zM\">data<\/a> from Flipside Crypto, the attack began in early May and at one point in June, pushed transactions on the Polygon network went as high as 8 million per day. In the same timeframe, the maximum number of transactions on the Ethereum network was at 1.2 million. <\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2021-10\/d3c1cc06-6a99-4666-a722-b3e33571126e.png\"><figcaption style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Number of transactions on Ethereum vs. Polygon. Source: Flipside Crypto<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Data found on a Polygon forum indicates that the attacker has been inflating transaction volumes by as much as 90% by stuffing each block full of \u201cmeaningless transactions\u201d while only having to pay around 0.02 MATIC to spam the entire block and roughly $1,000 for an entire day. <\/p>\n<p>A deeper dive into the transactions and addresses interacting on the network revealed that around 30% of the network\u2019s transaction count was coming from two contracts which have been determined to be arbitrage bots that conduct thousands of daily transactions to various decentralized exchanges (DEX). <\/p>\n<p>The exact reason why the spammer chose to fill each block when the bots were only conducting 2,000 &#8211; 4,000 trades per day is uncertain, but one theory is that it was done in an effort to prevent anyone else from front running the trade. <\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related: <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>Polygon can hit $3.50 in Q4 as MATIC\u2019s 20% weekly rally triggers bull flag setup<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_bot_netted_6800_in_average_daily_profit\"><\/span>The bot netted $6,800 in average daily profit<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Over a period of 120 days, the bot was able to grow an initial amount of 14 Ether to 218.5 Ether, which is currently worth $813,694. <\/p>\n<p>That works out to an average daily of profit roughly $6,800 before including the cost to spam the network. <\/p>\n<p>In response to the spammer, the team behind Polygon ultimately decided to increase the minimum cost of a transaction from 1 gwei to 30 gwei as a way to fight spam and improve network health. <\/p>\n<p>The move <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ears to have achieved its intended goal as <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delphidigital.io\/\">data<\/a> provided by Delphi Digital shows that the spike in average transaction costs coincided with a marked decline in the number of daily transactions because it now costs $30,000 to spam the network for an entire day. <\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2021-10\/0a25a1cc-a647-47bd-9a71-aa31f8a97106.png\"><figcaption style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Polygon average gas cost vs. daily transaction count. Source: Delphi Digital<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Network data shows that the spam transactions have dropped from 2 million to 500,000 transactions per day, a decrease of 75%, but they still account for 16.7% of daily transactions. This means that the bots are spending roughly $5,000 of their daily $6,800 profit on gas to keep the scheme running.<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-content__disclaimer\">The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.\n<\/p>\n<p><template data-name=\"subscription_form\" data-type=\"markets_outlook\"><\/template><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/arbitrage-bot-s-spam-attack-on-the-polygon-network-generated-6-800-per-day\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;# Arbitrage bot\u2019s spam attack on the Polygon network generated $6,800 per day &#8221; The growth of layer-two protocols has been one of the major stories of 2021 as the rising popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFT) have driven transaction costs higher on the Ethereum (ETH) network effectively pricing out many participants.\u00a0&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":354684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.cointelegraph.com\/images\/1200_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjEtMTAvZTY5MzVjNTQtZDkxOS00YzFkLTk2OTUtMWNlMGZjMDhiYzM2LmpwZw==.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[74867,86752,74863,74891,74882,95119,113408,73785,87229],"class_list":["post-354683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-altcoin","tag-bot","tag-cryptocurrencies","tag-ethereum","tag-hacks","tag-layer2","tag-polygon","tag-markets","tag-spam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}