Ahmad Shadid, the CEO of decentralized compute provider io.net, has responded to critics who had questioned the number of GPUs truly available on the platform with a detailed post-mortem claiming the network had been attacked by users attempting to spoof GPU availability in return for future rewards.
“Like many startups, we move fast, and sometimes we break things. In this case, something broke, and someone or some group sought to exploit that,” said Shadid, in his post on X.
Shadid explained how the company became aware that users were increasingly spoofing GPUs in order to solicit rewards from the network in what Shadid characterized as a Sybil attack, or an attack on the nodes of a network. “Ten days ago, we saw an enormous spike of ~1.8M fake GPUs attempting to connect to the network, and our team prioritized identifying and blocking these devices,” Shadid explained.
Over the course of the “multi-day game of cat and mouse” as io.net attempted to separate out real devices from spoofed devices, several short-term problems were created, Shadid explained. However, following the resolution of the issue, Shadid claims the network infrastructure is now fully operational, though GPU supply may be temporarily diminished as partners rejoin the network.
Shadid was clear that the attack did not affect io.net’s development plans. “We are launching a second rewards program for suppliers running May 1st to May 30th, and I encourage any suppliers to reach out and talk to our team,” Shadid wrote, before adding, “We are still on track to launch IO Cloud v2 and $IO Coin – we will not let these bumps in the road slow us down.”
Io.net execs attempt to quash FUD
Questions about the protocol’s legitimacy were raised this weekend by users on X, most notably Martin Shkreli, who reported seemingly disparate numbers of GPUs available on io.net.
In response, several executives from the company attempted to quell rumors on the site, including the chief security officer, known pseudonymously as Hushky, and chief technical officer Gaurav Sharma by publishing reports of an attack faced on April 25. Hushky admitted, “We fucked up” but insisted, “Despite all the issues, the network still serves tens of thousands of compute hours per month and growing. It’s early, and there are going to be bumps in the road.”
Regarding Shkreli, Hushky hinted that the controversial figure may have had ulterior motives for attacking io.net. “I legitimately think we’re collateral damage in a personal situation,” Hushky wrote in response to a post claiming that Shkreli may be launching a competing product soon.
Io.net and Martin Shkreli did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
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