StarkWare re-enables access to funds locked after upgrade

Quick Take

  • StarkWare said Wednesday that $550,000 in funds had been locked up due to an upgrade. 
  • The Ethereum scaling protocol has since re-enabled access to let users retrieve their funds. 

A number of users were locked out of accounts with StarkWare after an upgrade siloed some funds. 

The Ethereum scaling protocol explained that the blockage was due to the 0.12.1 version upgrade last week. Users were advised to perform an "essential" account upgrade months ago, and those who had not upgraded could not access their accounts.

Affected accounts contained a total of $550,000. 

"As of today, the upgrade is reenabled, allowing users to immediately regain access to their accounts," StarkWare said. "For technical reasons, it may take until tomorrow for users of Argent and Braavos to regain access."

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Inaccessible funds

StarkWare users had been concerned about the inaccessible funds after the upgrade, with one person saying on social media that it equated to "having the money in your bank account disappear if you don't get the latest software package."

Others noted that the lock out chafed against the promises of decentralization and immutability that web3 offers. 


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About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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