333ETH Blacklisted By MetaMask As Potentially Active Scam

The most active Ethereum dApp, 333ETH has been blacklisted by MetaMask as being an active scam, calling to question the integrity of 333ETH and highlighting inherent security problems within the way Ethereum allows dApps to work on the Ethereum blockchain. Or, perhaps MetaMask are being overly cautious? What is 333ETH? According to The Next Web, 333ETH is currently the most popular dApp on the entire Ethereum blockchain. It’s based on an automated investment distribution platform, one that uses a smart contract to issue daily returns to its users. According to The Next Web: “The 333ETH platform is apparently so ingenious, that after taking some of your initial investment for ‘marketing,’ ‘technical support,’ and ‘payroll,’ users will supposedly immediately begin receiving 3.33 percent daily dividends of the Ethereum sent to its smart contract address.” The premise is that users of 333ETH within MetaMask (and other similar services) are given access to 3.33% of Ethereum’s daily dividends. It sounds too good to be true and as a matter of fact, it probably is, which is why MetaMask have finally decided to start taking action. Now, users of MetaMask that try to access the 333ETH application are greeted with the following message: Image sourced from The Next Web “MetaMask believes this domain could currently compromise your security and has prevented you from interacting with it. This is because the site tested positive on the Ethereum Phishing Detector. This includes outright malicious websites and legitimate websites that have been compromised by a malicious actor. You can turn MetaMask off to interact with this site, but it is advised not to.” Interestingly though, 333ETH have been issuing dividends This is a catch 22, because over the last month it seems there have been no issues regarding returns on 333ETH. The application has over 1,700 live users and has transacted around $3 million worth of ETH via it’s smart contract in the past 30 days. 333ETH are doing what they said they would, so what’s the problem? Many believe that this block from MetaMask, is more of a personal attack. According to The Next Web, one Twitter user by the name of @ChrisBlec  has tweeted, saying: “Very interesting that @metamask_io has blocked the #1 most-trafficked dapp because it simply doesn't like it. From what I can tell, 333eth is an ownerless, autonomous, unstoppable smart contract with transparent code. Is it a good idea to use? No. Should bad ideas be blocked? NO.” Simply put, just because 333ETH probably isn’t something you should be getting involved in, does this mean it should be totally censored? MetaMesk have responded, stating that their systems have detected phishing scams within 333ETH and that the block is an advisory, users are able to bypass this by disabling MetaMask temporarily, though MetaMask do not recommend users do this. References The Next Web googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1538128067916-0'); });