LayerZero’s Anti-Sybil Effort Identifies 800,000 Fraudulent Addresses

LayerZero’s Effort to Combat Sybil Attacks Uncovers Over 800,000 Addresses

LayerZero, a leader in blockchain interoperability, has completed a self-reporting initiative to address Sybil attacks, uncovering over 800,000 addresses suspected of fraudulent activities.

In collaboration with risk management platform Chaos Labs and blockchain analytics firm Nansen, LayerZero conducted a thorough analysis to identify these Sybil addresses. The self-reporting phase has now concluded, with each self-reported address receiving 15% of its intended token allocation, while the remaining 85% is redistributed to qualified users.

Following this review, LayerZero identified 803,093 addresses as potential Sybils—users creating multiple fake accounts to claim more rewards from airdrops.

Earlier in May, LayerZero announced a snapshot for its upcoming ZRO token airdrop, initially revealed in December 2023. Shortly after, LayerZero Labs’ co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino expressed concerns about company employees participating in the airdrop. On May 7, Pellegrino announced that all LayerZero employees were banned from participating, labeling it a “fireable offense.”

“Every LayerZero labs employee is 100% restricted from claiming and has no eligibility—it will be a fireable offense,” Pellegrino stated.

Following the May 1 snapshot, LayerZero began identifying Sybil actors. As part of this initiative, the platform implemented a self-reporting mechanism, allowing suspected addresses to come forward. Each self-reported address received 15% of its intended token allocation, with the remaining 85% redistributed among qualified users. This approach aimed to incentivize honest reporting and protect the ecosystem from exploitative behaviors.

Initially, over 2 million addresses were flagged as potential Sybils. However, stricter criteria were applied to ensure accuracy, refining the list to 803,093 addresses. According to LayerZero, these results are preliminary and are primarily intended to exclude large clusters of addresses from bounty hunting eligibility. The platform also mentioned that the findings are not definitive and may evolve, with some addresses potentially being reassessed and removed from the Sybil list.

The next stage, called Sybil Bounty Hunting, begins on May 18. In this phase, LayerZero will invite the community to participate in identifying Sybil addresses. Bounty hunters must report at least 20 addresses, supported by a clear and robust methodology. Successful reports will earn participants a reward of 10% of Sybil’s intended token allocation, granted exclusively to the first eligible reporter of each address.

LayerZero emphasized that the initial list from the self-reporting phase will not be updated during the bounty-hunting process to ensure clarity and consistency for participants.

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