$3 Million Jackpot Winner Rigs Ethereum Game — But Was It Cheating?

Fomo3D functions by allowing users to continually purchase “keys” while a timer counts down. When the clock strikes zero, the player who last purchased a key wins the jackpot. However, each time a key is purchased, time is added to the clock. As reported by Motherboard, a player won the jackpot on Wednesday and, in doing so, raked in more than 10,000 ether coins. However, developers have since admitted in the game’s Discord channel that the winner effectively rigged the system by clogging the notoriously easy-to-congest Ethereum blockchain long enough to essentially shut out other players from buying the last key.

So #fomo3d ended, and the winner made off with 10,469 ETH. It looks like it took a successful block stuffing attack to end it. I look forward to seeing an analysis of how much the attacker/winner paid in gas fees to run out the clock.

— nic carter 🧊 (@nic__carter) August 22, 2018

The Winning Strategy

Motherboard provides detailed specifics as to exactly how the winner achieved his gaming of the system but, in layman’s terms, the victor merely paid exorbitant transaction fees to ensure a high degree of difficulty for other players to successfully verify a key purchase in time.

Cheating or Ingenious?

Some people might be tempted to call this strategy cheating, but the game’s inventor told Motherboard that he wouldn’t classify it as unfair. So, how much did the winner pay to rig the system? According to an official announcement via Discord, the strategist forked over at least $11,000 to win the $3 million jackpot. What do you think about Fomo3D? Was the first jackpot winner’s strategy cheating, ingenious, or both? Let us know what you think in the comments below!