Not so long ago, Alien Worlds dove headfirst into its player-driven planetary DAO system. This system allowed players to elect Council members who could submit proposals on ways to use the planet’s TLM token allocation. However, a few bad actors were able to cheat the system and walk away with 4 million TLM tokens, worth over US$100,000!
The Alien Worlds DAO system is an exciting feature that the team has been promoting for a long time. And after a long wait, they finally released it in the fall of 2022. Things seemed to be going pretty well, with regular elections, proposals, and grants. However, in February 2023, some bad actors were able to abuse and mess with the planetary DAO system.
Player-managed DAO organizations are a growing feature in Web3 applications. But most of these DAOs usually have a developer stamp between them and actual backgrounds or in-game changes. But not in Alien Worlds. Each planet has a daily allocation of TLM tokens, which Planetary Councils can apparently send to themselves with three out of five votes!
the flight
You can read a more detailed account of what happened in a Cryptomonkeys research article. Cryptomonkeys is a popular free NFT group on the WAX blockchain that participates in Alien Worlds as players. In short, bad actors were able to play and vote for councilors at the last minute, putting three puppet counts on the council. And so, with a majority of five seats, they quickly tabled and passed two proposals. These proposals were not even disguised. They just transferred millions of TLM tokens to each other!
They tried to repeat the process on planet Neri, but with a warning, some players and groups were able to band together to prevent them from being chosen. However, as mentioned in the research report, if these embezzlers choose to use their stolen funds to gain more voting power, they likely cannot be prevented from repeating their theft on other planets.
Accounts of the Kavian Puppet Council
The results
Alien Worlds’ response to this incident? They just shrug their shoulders and say the system is working as expected. They also mention that Kavian had accumulated quite a large storage of unused TLM tokens and thus put himself in danger. But that’s a sly statement and bullshit. Kind of like pretending a woman was “asking for it” while wearing revealing clothes!
And if the system is set up so that anyone can come in and vote at the last minute and successfully elect a previously unknown candidate, then there’s probably something wrong with the system.
Interestingly, talking about this incident on AW Discord is almost non-existent. And the Alien Worlds team doesn’t seem to want to do anything. And of course, I can understand the philosophy that this is supposed to be a player-driven and player-executed feature, so it’s up to players to find solutions. But it’s also a big black eye for the Alien Worlds DAO system. And hopefully a lesson in caution for other projects setting up their own DAOs!
The next planetary elections will take place in just under three days, on February 26. Will Afhe, Biff and José manage to commit another burglary? They already hold the top three spots in Neri and Kavian. If more TLM tokens are hijacked in this way, it could have major repercussions and cause players to lose confidence in Alien Worlds and its DAO system.
What is Alien Worlds?
Alien Worlds is a mining game on the WAX blockchain. Players can own land, use tools to mine Trilium (TLM), the in-game token, customize their avatars, and send ships on missions to earn rare TLMs and NFTs. Players can also earn TLM through mining and then spend the tokens to upgrade tools and weapons. Alien Worlds recently introduced the first phase of Syndicates, a DAO-based, player-driven planetary governance system. DAOs can submit proposals to help develop and expand the ecosystem.
For all Syndicate news, check out the Syndicate Underground articles on the Alien Worlds Medium stream.
In a remarkable cross-chain reach, the Trilum token unites the Wax, Ethereum, and Binance blockchains, allowing the economies of all three chains to merge into one. Players can transfer TLM tokens back and forth across networks using the official teleport page.
For more, check out our full guide to alien worlds here.
Phil Hall has been a gaming enthusiast since birth and a cryptocurrency enthusiast since 2017. He loves new discoveries and shares them with others through blogging and photography. You can follow him on Twitter or read his other posts on Medium.