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Tron Blockchain Stalled for Hours by 'Malicious Contract,' Justin Sun Says

A “malicious contract” caused a Tron blockchain super representative to suspend block production for a few hours on Monday.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 10:26 a.m. Published Nov 2, 2020, 5:10 p.m.

Tron founder and BitTorrent CEO Justin Sun

The Tron blockchain halted creation and execution of blocks due to a “malicious contract” against a super representative on Nov. 2, according to multiple reports.

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First reported by Crypto Briefing, the smart contract blockchain halted block production at 10:00 UTC for some two hours, according to Reddit users. The event is notable as it validates centralization concerns raised against Tron, which already holds an infamous reputation in blockchain circles.

Tron uses a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism. DPoS blockchains sacrifice decentralization for throughput by centralizing certain transaction activities to majority nodes.

Tron CEO Justin Sun followed reports with a tweet thread stating that the pause in block production was caused by an attacker exploiting the latest Tron software. Updating the node’s software began block production again, Sun said.

The platform’s native token, TRX, is down 3% in 24 hours, according to the CoinDesk 20.

Tron did not return questions for comment by press time.

Tron Foundation Justin Sun Tron

William Foxley

Will Foxley is the host of The Mining Pod and publisher at Blockspace Media. A former co-host of CoinDesk's The Hash, Will was the director of content at Compass Mining and a tech reporter at CoinDesk.