Phantom wallet update glitch leads to losses for some iOS users

by

As a seasoned crypto investor with a fair share of battle scars from navigating the volatile world of digital assets, I must admit that the recent debacle involving Phantom wallet and its buggy update has sent chills down my spine. Losing access to my hard-earned funds due to an unforeseen glitch is every investor’s worst nightmare.

An issue with an update for the Phantom wallet (which operates on Solana) resulted in multiple iOS users being unable to access their assets due to the app malfunctioning and locking them out after a reset.

On November 13th, multiple users began notifying us about an update that appeared to wipe out their digital wallets, forcing them to re-login using their backup codes. Caught unawares, several users found themselves unable to retrieve their assets.

One user claimed losses of $600,000, with others reporting amounts between $10,000 and $100,000, sparking calls for reimbursement. However, as Phantom operates as a non-custodial wallet, it does not store users’ recovery phrases or have access to their funds. 

In a non-custodial system, it’s the users themselves who possess the wallet keys. This gives them more control, but it also means they are entirely responsible for safeguarding their recovery phrases, ensuring they don’t lose access to their digital assets.

At first, it was thought that the problem would affect everyone using Phantom. However, further investigation revealed that only a small group of iOS users were actually impacted. In their post-incident statement, the wallet provider stated they had released an update to prevent the bug from affecting any more users.

Although Phantom didn’t reveal exactly how many users were impacted, they advised users to securely store their recovery phrases as a precaution and expressed regret for the occurrence of this incident.

“We’re committed to making sure this won’t happen again,” the firm wrote.

Phantom has advised users to reach out to its support team for further assistance.

In late October, another problem occurred with wallets during the distribution of the Grass token. A sudden increase in activity resulted in about three hours of service interruption. Users experienced discrepancies in their balance statements and difficulties with transactions. Phantom explained these issues as being caused by strain on the backend servers due to excessive demand.

Seed phrase recovery services

For those with minimal tech skills in the cryptocurrency world, issues such as losing recovery keys, neglecting to save backups, or misplacing them have been persistent problems. To alleviate this, services similar to traditional finance’s backup options have emerged, aiming to streamline the management of recovery phrases for a more convenient experience.

To illustrate, the hardware wallet company Ledger introduced their debated Ledger Recovery service in the year 2023. This is a paid, elective subscription plan designed to provide users with a dependable seed phrase backup system.

Nevertheless, there are worries among community users that the service could potentially provide the manufacturer with access to crucial, sensitive data required for money transactions, raising privacy concerns.

Contrastingly, earlier this year, the DeRec Alliance unveiled intentions to create open standards for secure data retrieval using a decentralized methodology. This approach employs a protocol that allows for the secure exchange of confidential information between specified parties, without disclosing sensitive details.

Read More

2024-11-14 10:18