Interoperability giant LayerZero has released over 800,000 Sybil addresses in its ongoing self-reported efforts to combat Sybil attacks.
According to LayerZero, the self-reporting process was conducted in conjunction with rigorous analysis by risk management platform Chaos Labs and blockchain analytics firm Nansen.
After review, the platform announced that it had identified 803,093 addresses as potential Sybils (users who create multiple fake accounts to claim more rewards from airdrops).
In early May, LayerZero released a snapshot of the upcoming ZRO token airdrop, initially announced for December 2023. Shortly after the airdrop teaser, LayerZero Labs co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino expressed concerns about the company’s employees participating in the airdrop.
On May 7, Pellegrino announced at X that all LayerZero employees had been banned from participating in the airdrop, calling it a “fireable violation.”
Additionally, following the May 1 snapshot, LayerZero began actively identifying Sybil attackers. As part of its Sybil hunting initiative, LayerZero has implemented a self-reporting mechanism to flag addresses suspected of Sybil behavior.
Each self-reported address is set to receive 15% of the intended token allocation, with the remaining 85% redistributed to eligible users. This strategic deployment was intended to protect the ecosystem from exploitative practices while encouraging honest reporting.
Initially, over 2 million addresses were flagged as potential Sybils. However, to ensure accuracy and minimize false positives, we applied more stringent criteria to refine the list into 803,093 addresses.
According to LayerZero, the results of this step are preliminary and primarily intended to exclude large clusters of addresses from bounty hunting eligibility. The platform also noted that the study’s results were inconclusive. It is stated that as the methodology evolves, some addresses may be re-evaluated and potentially removed from the Sybil list.
The next phase, called Sybil Bounty Hunting, begins May 18. At this stage, LayerZero invites the community to participate in Sybil address identification based on clear requirements. Bounty hunters must report at least 20 addresses, transparent and robust methodology.
Successful reports will reward participants with 10% of Sybil’s intended token allocation, which will be granted exclusively to the first eligible reporter from each address.
The platform emphasized that the initial list of self-reported steps will not be updated during the bounty hunting process to ensure clarity and consistency for participants.