There will always be a need for this eventual "please roll back or block the bad actors". And more money you put into the game more it will be demanded when someone gets hurt.
I don't like crypto but this way of fixing things is pretty normal and standard in software and orher industries also. You simply can run into situations which weren't planned. So i don't think there is a problem with these fixes
It's normal in most industries, but it also defeats the main selling point of crypto - "code is law" doesn't actually work, you always end up in a world of humans and politics.
What's to stop these actions being taken for reasons other than theft?
And relying on external authorities is a good thing actually. Because it's way way more effective than software solutions. Now of course the external authority can compromise sometimes but for this we also already have solutions for like thousands of years - diversification. If people just would learn not to put all their eggs into pne basket and expect eventual compromise that wouldn't be a problem. I think some 101 finances and practical real world problem solutions classes or something like this would get us way further than decentralisig everything with software
If you think it through you simply can not rely 100% on anything humans build. But still societies as a whole thrive and human progress is real.
DeFi is no exception. It’s designed to make banking cheaper. But it’s new technology and will take some time to mature.
Personally, I believe banks won’t exist in the traditional sense anymore 20 years in the future if you like it or don’t. I mean, I love steam locomotives but I don’t expect them to be a common means of transportation ever again. ;-)
A bug in a DeFi contract? Sorry nothing we can do! Bug in Wells Fargo account settlement code? Ah we’re sorry, let’s roll that back for ya!
You can also use variables to store addresses to other contracts and call external methods indirectly using these pointer like structures. If I understood the bug correctly, the hacker was able to modify such a pointer and redirect all transactions to a wallet contract she controlled.
So this is how you can upgrade contracts: There is the „implementation contract“ pattern. Basically, you define a user-facing proxy contract defining the interface but all it does is delegate user calls to the actual implementation contract by maintaining a variable pointing to it. Using a privileged call you can update that address even after deploying the proxy.
Formal verification