Blockchain-Based Move-to-Earn App Steps Under DDoS Attacks After Upgrade

Solana-based move-to-earn application Stepn has reported multiple denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks in the wake of the platform with a major anti-cheating upgrade.

Stepn took to Twitter on June 5 to report that the platform has suffered a number of DDoS attacks, causing remediation maintenance and associated incorrect performance.

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We’ve been dealing with multiple DDOS attacks in the past few hours. Securing the servers and restoring can take 1 to 12 hours. We recommend that you rest for a while during the maintenance, otherwise the training sessions cannot be recorded properly.

— STEPN | Public Beta Phase IV (@Stepnofficial) June 5, 2022

According to the statement, Stepn expected to secure and restore the servers within a maximum of 12 hours, but at the time of writing, has not posted an update for 20 hours.

“Our engineers are working hard to fix the issues. We will announce here once the restore is complete. Thank you so much for everyone’s patience,” Stepn wrote†

The attacks came shortly after Stepn introduced its anti-cheating system, also known as “Stepn’s Model for Anti-Cheating” or SMAC, on June 3. The system aims to remove fake users from the platform and fraudulent movement data on the Stepn app in an attempt to extract unfair profits from the platform.

“The SMAC system specifically targets the motion simulation by modifying real walking/running data, thanks to our machine learning algorithm,” reads the description of the anti-cheating system.

Stepn reported major platform issues shortly after the upgrade, with SMAC incorrectly identifying some real users as bots. Other issues included network problems caused by a “25 million DDOS attack” and the temporary inability to track bots on the platform.

“We are very sorry for the inconvenience to users. The anti-cheating update may seem small, but it’s actually an important cornerstone of Stepn’s long-term development,” said Stepn.

Despite the platform’s DDoS issues, Stepn’s native token, the Green Satoshi Token (GST), has not seen a critical drop in recent days. On the contrary, the GST is up about 10% in the last 24 hours, trading at $1.04 at the time of writing. The market cap of the token is $624 million, according to CoinGecko data.

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Launched in December 2021, Stepn is a major mobile non-fungible token (NFT) game that allows users to earn tokens by walking, jogging or running outdoors with an NFT sneaker. The game has a dual token system, including the GST token and the Governance Token (GMT).

The news comes as Stepn is preparing to limit the availability of its platform to users in mainland China in mid-July.