Honey Pots resp. Mouse Traps – Hacking the Hackers

Figuratively speaking, the attacker should be stuck like a honeypot. The goal of the honeypot is to lure the attacker in, mislead him or distract him from the actual attack target, log and analyze his attack methods, identify the attacker or even steal his assets. In the field of cryptocurrencies, a honeypot means a supposedly attractive opportunity to make money quickly by exploiting a supposed loophole. They look vulnerable to an unsophisticated attacker, but when he tries to “crack” them, he instead becomes a victim himself and possibly loses money. Examples of such supposed loopholes are  unprotected owner functions, re-entrancy possibilities, or missing randomness. You can say the hacker gets hacked himself. A well-documented example can be found here [14].

In this context, one speaks of a mousetrap if the honeypot was created with good intentions, so to speak, in order to detect attacks, learn patterns and subsequently prevent them, and not to steal someone else’s money.