Gala Games, a pioneer in Web3 entertainment, has filed a lawsuit against pNetwork, a cross-chain bridge provider, for negligence and tortious interference with business expectancy.

The lawsuit alleges that pNetwork failed to address a misconfiguration in its code, which caused a false appearance of a $1 billion hack, leading to a disruption in the market for Gala’s native token, GALA. Gala claims that the incident required a substantial expenditure of over $25 million to address the aftermath of the breach and caused reputational harm due to the market disruption.

The lawsuit states that pNetwork admitted to mistakenly leaking a governance key when deploying the pGALA bridge, which was later used by an attacker to breach the pGALA contract on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The recovery plan presented and executed by pNetwork failed to recover the assets that were the subject of the attack, causing further harm. Gala alleges that pNetwork sought to increase the utilization of its platform by issuing pGALA and that pNetwork benefited from its association with Gala Games. Therefore, pNetwork owed Gala a duty of care to avoid causing harm to the company or tokens.

The GALA tokens are an essential component of Gala’s business, and pNetwork was aware of the prospective economic advantage in the value of GALA tokens as the entire function of pGALA is tied to the utility of GALA tokens itself. When pNetwork negligently and recklessly caused a security breach and intentionally carried out a failed recovery plan that caused further harm, it negatively impacted the market’s perception of Gala and the GALA tokens, damaged Gala’s reputation, and caused harm to its relationships with exchanges.

Gala is seeking $27,671,934.80 for the out-of-pocket costs due to the breach, additional compensation for injuries, punitive damages, and other relief the court would deem just and equitable.

The breach occurred on November 3, 2022, when pNetwork informed Gala that the contract on the Binance Smart Chain had been breached due to pNetwork engineers mistakenly leaving a key in the public GitHub repository. pNetwork proposed a plan to deactivate the bridge and then emergency whitehat exploit their own contract. Gala and pNetwork contacted exchanges to alert them to the breach and immediately suspended deposits and withdrawals of the BEP-20 all pGALA. Following this, pNetwork initiated their whitehat attack, which was supposed to last for 2-3 minutes.

Gala Games is a Web3 games company that uses decentralization, player ownership, and reward economies to create a revolutionary new way of gaming. The company has dozens of games on the horizon and several already in various stages of presale or beta play. Gala Games is quickly becoming the world leaders in own-your-experience gaming.

#GalaGames #pNetwork #Web3 #Lawsuit #azcoinnews

This article was republished from azcoinnews.com

The thriving world of Web3 gaming startup Gala Games has taken an unexpected twist as its CEO, Eric Schiermeyer, and co-founder, Wright Thurston, find themselves embroiled in a legal battle. This dramatic turn of events has not only shaken the company but has also had a significant impact on the price of its native token, GALA, which dropped by a staggering 13%.

The Allegations: Theft, Mismanagement, and Self-Dealing

In a lawsuit filed on August 31, Eric Schiermeyer made startling accusations against Wright Thurston. Schiermeyer alleged that Thurston had stolen a jaw-dropping 8.6 billion GALA tokens in early 2021, equivalent to $130 million. This alleged theft occurred when Thurston managed to sell the tokens before the company could intervene, leaving Gala Games in a state of shock.

Schiermeyer's lawsuit didn't stop at accusations of token theft. He also claimed that Thurston had a pattern of founding companies that ended up in litigation, insolvent, or bankrupt. This raised questions about the trustworthiness of Thurston as a business partner.

Counterclaims and Accusations of Mismanagement

Thurston wasn't about to sit idle. On the same day, he filed a counter lawsuit alleging that Schiermeyer had taken control of Gala Games for personal gain. Thurston accused Schiermeyer of using company funds for his personal purchases, including financing a private jet. These allegations painted a picture of mismanagement and self-dealing within the company.

The Gala Games Ecosystem

Gala Games, a Web3 GameFi startup founded by Thurston and Schiermeyer in early 2019, had been making significant strides in the gaming and blockchain industries. The company recently launched Champions Arena, a turn-based RPG game for mobile devices, and ventured into blockchain-based music, film, and digital collectibles. However, the legal battle between its top executives has cast a shadow over its operations.

A History of Deceptive Behavior

Schiermeyer's lawsuit also alleged that Thurston had a history of founding companies that ended up in litigation or financial turmoil. Gala Games was portrayed as the only legitimate venture among Thurston's endeavors.

The Impact on GALA Tokens

The legal feud had an immediate impact on the GALA token's price, which dropped by 13%. Large-scale token movements like these can often trigger fluctuations in token prices, affecting investor sentiment and market dynamics.

Thurston's Legal Troubles Continue

It's worth noting that Thurston had faced allegations of fraud even before this legal battle. The SEC had previously sued him in relation to another company he founded, Green United LLC, for allegedly misleading investors into a fraudulent green crypto enterprise.

Conclusion

The #GalaGames saga serves as a reminder of the challenges and complexities that can arise within the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. As the legal battle unfolds, the company's reputation and assets hang in the balance. The crypto community will be closely watching for the resolution of this high-stakes conflict that has sent shockwaves through Gala Games and beyond.

$GALA

Huobi and Web3 gaming project Gala Games have announced that they will compensate victims of a hack on pNetwork that occurred last fall. The two companies have stated that they will be reimbursing victims with a total of $50 million in crypto and software licenses, with the compensation to be distributed within the next few weeks.

Huobi has pledged $25 million in compensation, consisting of $15 million in USDT and $10 million in equity. Gala Games has promised $25 million in node compensation. The reimbursement is intended for those who lost funds during the hack, which saw a large amount of GALA tokens dumped onto the market, causing the price to plummet.

The hack was eventually claimed by pNetwork, a cross-chain bridge project for the Binance Smart Chain. At the time, pNetwork had discovered a vulnerable pGALA pool on PancakeSwap and had taken it upon themselves to attack the vulnerability to prevent malicious actors from exploiting it. However, despite the attack being a “white hat” one, the failure to communicate this to the community resulted in significant losses for GALA holders.

The compensation is just one of the measures that Huobi and Gala Games are taking to address the issue from last year. In March, Gala Games filed a lawsuit seeking $27.7 million in damages from pNetwork. Huobi has now also announced its participation in the lawsuit in order to “recover losses, protect reputation, and benefit users.”

It is important to note that this incident highlights the risks associated with investing in cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance projects, as they are still largely unregulated and susceptible to hacks and other security breaches. While the compensation offered by Huobi and Gala Games is a positive step towards remedying the losses suffered by victims of the pNetwork hack, it also serves as a reminder to investors to exercise caution when investing in this emerging and volatile market.

#Huobi #pNetwork #GalaGames #GALA #azcoinnews

This article was republished from azcoinnews.com