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Blockchain games, once touted by South Korean game publishers as a future growth engine, are becoming a liability as sliding token prices and user attrition are now compounded by security costs. A blockchain platform built on Nexon’s flagship intellectual property, MapleStory, saw its ecosystem token fall 94% from its peak and then had to suspend main services for more than half a day after an external intrusion.
MapleStory Universe (MSU), operated by Nexon’s blockchain subsidiary NEXPACE, confirmed unauthorized external access to part of its off-chain server infrastructure the previous day, according to industry sources on the 13th. Operators blocked the intrusion route and switched all services to emergency maintenance. The game, website and marketplace resumed at 6:40 a.m. Korean time on the same day, while maintenance continues on the OpenAPI used by outside developers, with a target of resuming next week.
The breach hit servers that process service operation data outside the blockchain. According to the operators, unauthorized access occurred to some users’ wallet addresses, nicknames, IP addresses, countries and cities of access, device and browser information, login histories and session keys. Also included were the first 12 characters of email addresses, linked social account information, token transfers, marketplace transactions, and records of changes to in-game items and currency.
Information on 328 apps registered by developers at the Builder Center was also accessed without authorization, covering developer wallet addresses, nicknames, API keys and OAuth client IDs. The operators said the exposed API keys could not affect assets and that they would help developers reissue their keys. They did not disclose the total number of affected users.
No asset theft has been confirmed so far, the operators said. Users’ wallet private keys are neither transmitted to nor stored in the MSU system and so were not among the data accessed, and operational private keys capable of moving assets were not exposed, they said. The blockchain and smart contracts were unaffected and the token supply was unchanged, they added.
Still, the possibility of secondary damage from the data breach remains. “Anyone holding this information could link a wallet’s publicly visible on-chain activity to user information,” the operators said. “It could also be exploited to send phishing and impersonation messages that appear trustworthy, through email or linked social accounts.”
The breach adds pressure to a blockchain gaming business that was already contracting. MSU, which drew attention on the strength of the well-known MapleStory IP, has struggled to convert early interest into sustained demand. NXPC, the token used in the ecosystem, was down about 94% as of the morning of the same day from its peak of $2.621 in May last year.
Usage metrics have also fallen sharply. Daily average active wallets through the 11th of this month stood at 8,135, down about 64% from 22,598 in the same period a year earlier. The drop in new users was steeper still: new sign-ups plunged 96% over the same period, to 1,201 from 29,613.
“Blockchain platforms that handle cryptocurrency and users’ wallet and transaction data are attractive targets for hackers,” an industry official said. “Even when business results fall short of expectations, it is hard to cut security spending, and companies can end up shouldering the cost of responding to incidents as well.”
#Nexon#MapleStoryUniverse#NXPC#BlockchainGaming#DataBreach#Crypto
Original reporting by Kim Jung-woo for Seoul Economic Daily.
AI-translated from Korean. Quotes from foreignxact original wording
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