MetaMask Deploys Smart Transactions to Reduce Fees and Improve Privacy

ConsenSys has announced a new feature called Smart Transactions for MetaMask users. This feature aims to improve transaction success rates, lower gas costs, and protect users from harmful attacks like frontrunning. MetaMask users have often complained about high fees and transaction failures.

Smart Transactions keep transactions private until they are confirmed on-chain, preventing bots from front-running them. The success rate of these transactions is high because they undergo a pre-simulation using MetaMask’s just-in-time simulation service. During beta testing, the system achieved a 99.5% success rate, which is higher than the industry standard. This improvement is due to a new mempool virtualization technology developed by ConsenSys.

Users can also track the status of pending transactions in real-time on a new dashboard within the wallet, eliminating the need to use third-party block explorers. Jason Linehan from ConsenSys stated that Smart Transactions help users manage their transactions better when they are sent to the blockchain network.

Crypto Exchange Rain Hacked for $15M$

Rain, a Bahrain-based crypto exchange, has suffered a major security breach. On April 29, 2024, hackers stole about $14.8 million from Rain. The theft involved suspicious outflows from Rain’s BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP wallets. The stolen funds were quickly moved to instant exchanges and swapped for BTC and ETH. The funds ended up in wallets holding 137.9 BTC and 1,881 ETH, which have not been used since.

The investigation revealed an Ethereum wallet ending in d609 received multiple transactions from Bitgo multisignature wallets. These 26 transactions involved ETH and various tokens like Shiba Inu, Chainlink, Tether, and USD Coin, which were then swapped for ETH on Uniswap. The d609 wallet later accumulated different tokens, including Aave, Yearn Finance, and MakerDAO, which were also exchanged for ETH. This shows the sophisticated methods hackers used to hide their activities.