Who's who in Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet - BBC News

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Three members of Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet have quit or been sacked, amid reports that more will follow. Here's a quick guide to who's going and who remains in Labour's top team.

MPs who have left shadow cabinet

Media captionHilary Benn tells the BBC's Andrew Marr: Jeremy Corbyn "not a leader"

Former shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn (sacked)

Son of veteran Labour left-winger Tony Benn, Hilary Benn has been sacked as shadow foreign secretary .

He told the BBC it had been a "very difficult decision" to tell Mr Corbyn that he no longer had confidence in him. But he added that Labour needed "strong and effective leadership": "We don't currently have that and there is also no confidence that we will be able to win a general election as long as Jeremy remains leader."

Despite his brief, Mr Benn, the MP for Leeds Central, had disagreed with Jeremy Corbyn in September over air strikes on Syria and his Commons speech on the issue led to much speculation at the time that he would be sacked then. Mr Benn served as a minister in both the Blair and Brown governments, and was shadow secretary of state for communities and local government in Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet. While Mr Corbyn opposed the invasion of Iraq, Mr Benn has said he does not regret voting for the war in 2003, but described it as one of the "hardest decisions I've ever had to make".

Former shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander (resigned)

A former party whip under Ed Miliband's leadership, the MP for Lewisham East has a lower profile than Mr Benn outside Westminster. Made shadow health secretary in Jeremy Corbyn's first shadow cabinet, she was categorised as "neutral but not hostile" to Mr Corbyn in a list of Labour MPs leaked to The Times in March. But in a letter on Sunday, she said she was resigning with a "heavy heart" from the shadow cabinet following the referendum result: "As much as I respect you as a man of principle, I do not believe you have the capacity to shape the answers our country is demanding and I believe that if we are to form the next government, a change of leadership is essential."

Former shadow minister for young people and voter registration Gloria De Piero (resigned)

The former GMTV reporter has resigned, according to the Guardian, which reported that in her letter to Mr Corbyn she told him: "I do not believe you can deliver that victory at a general election, which may take place in a matter of months. I have been contacted by many of my members this weekend and it is clear that a good number of them share that view and have lost faith in your leadership." She has represented Ashfield since the 2010 general election. She served as a shadow culture minister and shadow home office minister under Ed Miliband, before being appointed as a shadow minister for women and equalities in 2013.

MPs still in shadow cabinet

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell

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The veteran Labour left-winger is best friends with Mr Corbyn and co-ordinated his election campaign. Amid reports of further expected shadow cabinet resignations, he told the BBC rebels should "calm down, listen to their members" and remember a basic principle of the Labour Party, "solidarity". He said Mr Corbyn had done well in electoral tests so far - by-elections and the local and mayoral elections. "he's not going anywhere .. the support out there is enormous," he said. He said Mr Corbyn was "not going" as leader and, whatever happened: "I will never stand for leadership of the Labour Party". He said he and Mr Corbyn had been friends for decades adding: "I will always have his back."

The MP for Hayes and Harlington previously stood for Labour leader in 2007 and 2010. A prominent rebel under previous Labour leaders, he once declared he would "swim through vomit" to vote against benefit cuts and faced criticism for telling a union event that he would "like to go back to the 1980s and assassinate Thatcher". He sparked outrage in 2003 by saying IRA terrorists should be "honoured" for taking part in their "armed struggle", while attending a gathering to commemorate the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.

Shadow defence secretary Emily Thornberry

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The Islington South MP told the BBC it was "extraordinary" that some of her colleagues thought it was the right time for a leadership challenge. "I'm not going to resign," she said. She said at "a time like this when the Tory party are pulling themselves apart, when nobody has any idea where the country is going" the Labour Party should being keeping "calm" and showing leadership. "The important thing is we remain unified as a party," she said.

Ms Thornberry was promoted to the shadow cabinet in January 2015 during a protracted reshuffle, which led to the sacking of two leading shadow ministers - Michael Dugher and Pat McFadden - and the resignation of a number of junior spokesmen in protest.

The wife of a High Court judge, she was a ministerial aide under Gordon Brown and served as shadow attorney general under Ed Miliband. However, she was sacked in November 2014 after posting a tweet of an image of a white van outside a house bedecked with St George's flags on the eve of the Rochester by-election - a tweet construed to be disparaging and for which she apologised. She has since rehabilitated herself and nominated Mr Corbyn in the leadership election.

Shadow international development secretary Diane Abbott

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Another veteran left-winger Diane Abbott, seen as being close to Mr Corbyn, told BBC Radio 4 the party membership still supports Jeremy Corbyn and said a coup had been planned for months. She described herself as a party loyalist and said only a "relatively small group of MPs has decided to pick a fight" with the membership. She stood in the Labour leadership contest in 2010 - losing to Ed Miliband - and was defeated in the latest London mayoral candidate election. A prominent rebel against the Blair and Brown governments, she voted against the party line on issues including a third runway for Heathrow, renewing the UK's Trident nuclear submarine system, tuition fees and the war in Iraq. She is MP for the east London seat of Hackney North and Stoke Newington.

Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham

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Defeated leadership contender Andy Burnham served as chief secretary to the Treasury, culture secretary and health secretary in Gordon Brown's government. The MP for Leigh - who came fourth out of five contenders in the 2010 battle and came second to Jeremy Corbyn in 2015 - was also previously shadow health secretary. In April 2009, having been booed at the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, he began a campaign that eventually led to the second Hillsborough inquiry. Having lost out to Mr Corbyn in the leadership contest, he said the priority was to "unite and to take on the Tories". In May he announced he would run for mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017.

Deputy leader Tom Watson

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A former trade union official who once shared a flat with Unite leader Len McCluskey, Mr Watson entered Parliament in 2001 as MP for West Bromwich. He was a government whip and defence minister under Tony Blair, but resigned in 2006, calling for the then prime minister to quit in the interests of the Labour Party and the country. An ally of Gordon Brown, he was a Cabinet Office minister and deputy party chairman under his government. Mr Watson is known for campaigning on issues including phone hacking, surveillance laws and historical child abuse.

Shadow business secretary Angela Eagle

Image copyright EPA

Angela Eagle, who represented the Remain side in some of the EU TV debates, had been tipped as a potential shadow chancellor but was given the business brief instead. She was also announced as shadow first secretary of state and deputises for Mr Corbyn at Prime Minister's Questions when David Cameron is away. The MP for Wallasey stood in the deputy leadership contest and was also a cabinet minister under Gordon Brown.

Shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer

Lord Falconer continued as shadow justice secretary, having initially been appointed by acting leader Harriet Harman. A former flatmate and close ally of former prime minister Tony Blair, he served as Lord Chancellor under the Blair government.

Shadow Commons leader Chris Bryant

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The MP for Rhondda moved to the role from the job of shadow culture secretary. Mr Bryant, who backed Yvette Cooper in the leadership contest, has also been the shadow work and pensions, and Home Office, minister. He was offered the job of shadow defence secretary but turned it down due to disagreements with Mr Corbyn on defence policy.

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Seema Malhotra

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Seema Malhotra became MP for the London seat of Feltham and Heston in 2011 in a by-election following the death of Alan Keen. In August 2014, she was given the newly-created role of shadow minister for preventing violence against women and girls, by the then Labour leader Ed Miliband. She is Mr McDonnell's number two in the shadow Treasury team.

Shadow education secretary Lucy Powell

The Manchester Central MP, elected in 2012, is a close ally of Ed Miliband and was vice-chair of Labour's general election campaign. During the leadership campaign she said she had "never, ever met or spoken to" Mr Corbyn since becoming an MP. After being appointed, she said education was a subject she was "passionate" about.

Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Vernon Coaker

The MP for Gedling returns to the position he filled in Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet from 2010-13. He later became shadow defence secretary. Mr Coaker - who chaired Yvette Cooper's Labour leadership campaign - was also minister for schools under Gordon Brown.

Shadow secretary of state for Scotland Ian Murray

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He continued as shadow Scotland secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, having initially been given the role by acting leader Harriet Harman in May 2015. The MP for Edinburgh South is the only current Labour MP in Scotland.

Chief whip Rosie Winterton

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A former government minister for transport, work and pensions and local government at different times under Gordon Brown, the MP for Doncaster Central retained the crucial job of shadow chief whip when Mr Corbyn became leader. Ms Winterton, a former aide to John Prescott, filled the same role throughout Ed Miliband's leadership.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith

Image copyright PA

The former shadow Welsh secretary said it was a "great honour" to be appointed to the work and pensions brief. Before entering politics, the MP for Pontypridd spent 10 years working as a BBC journalist.

Shadow energy secretary Lisa Nandy

The Wigan MP, seen as being on the left of the party, was previously a shadow Cabinet Office and education minister. Left wing journalist Owen Jones says he considered starting a campaign to make her leader after Ed Miliband.

Shadow environment secretary Kerry McCarthy

The Bristol East MP, first elected in 2005, had previously shadowed positions in the Foreign Office, Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions. She is also a vegan and campaigns on food issues.

Shadow communities secretary Jon Trickett

Image copyright John Trickett

Mr Trickett, the MP for Hemsworth, was one of Jeremy Corbyn's most senior backers in the Parliamentary Labour Party. He was shadow minister without portfolio and deputy chairman under Ed Miliband's leadership. He dismissed claims Labour lost the 2015 general election because it was too left wing, saying there was a "gulf between the population and political class".

Shadow culture secretary Maria Eagle

Image copyright PA

The identical twin sister of the party's new business spokeswoman, Angela Eagle. The Garston and Halewood MP was previously shadow defence secretary but was moved to the less high-profile brief after clashing with Mr Corbyn over the UK's Trident nuclear missile system. In contrast to the Labour leader, Ms Eagle was in favour of renewing Trident. She also voted to support air strikes against Islamic State in Syria.

Shadow secretary of state for transport Lilian Greenwood

The Nottingham South MP has represented the seat since 2010. She has been promoted from shadow rail minister under Ed Miliband's leadership.

Shadow secretary of state for Wales Nia Griffith

The MP for Llanelli since 2005. She was shadow minister for Wales under the last leadership and also served as a shadow business minister. Ms Griffith said she was "very honoured" to be appointed to the shadow cabinet.

Shadow minister for mental health Luciana Berger

Image copyright PA

The Liverpool Wavertree MP backed Andy Burnham in the leadership election. She was a shadow health minister under Ed Miliband.

Shadow leader of the House of Lords Baroness Smith of Basildon

The Labour MP for Basildon until 2010, Baroness Smith served as a Cabinet Office minister under Gordon Brown's government. She kept the position she had held since May 2015 under Mr Corbyn.

Shadow attorney general Karl Turner

The MP for Kingston Upon Hull East, a former shadow solicitor general, replaced Catherine McKinnell who resigned in January, citing concerns about Labour's direction under Mr Corbyn.

Lords chief whip Lord Bassam of Brighton

Former leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, he has held the chief whip position since May 2010.

Shadow minister without portfolio Jonathan Ashworth

Image copyright Labour Party

The Leicester South MP was a shadow Cabinet Office minister under Ed Miliband. He backed Yvette Cooper in the leadership election over his Leicester neighbour Liz Kendall, telling the Leicester Mercury he had agonised over the decision.

Shadow minister for housing and planning John Healey

Mr Healey is shadowing a portfolio he held under Gordon Brown. The Wentworth and Dearne MP held a range of post during the Labour government, including financial secretary to the Treasury and local government minister.



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Sunday assorted links

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The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.



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Constitutional crisis ahoy

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Contrary to popular belief, the UK does have a written constitution—it's just scattered across roughly 25 different pieces of legislation, subject to amendment on the fly whenever Parliament damn well pleases.

And since devolution came in, more than one parliament has to be convinced to amend the constitutional framework before it can be changed.

It is becoming apparent that The Scottish Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly may have veto power over BRexit per the House of Lords European Union Committee (11th Report of Session 2015-16,
"The process of withdrawing from the European Union"). See paras 70-71, "The role of the devolved legislatures in implementing the withdrawal agreement" -- section 29 of the Scotland Act 1998 binds the Scottish Parliament to act in a manner compatible with EU law, and Scottish parliamentary consent would be required to amend this. (A similar provision underpins the devolution settlements of Wales—which voted for Brexit—and Northern Ireland—which voted against it.)

So we have a royal mess coming down the pipeline.

Firstly, the referendum is non-binding on parliament. Voting "leave" did not automatically trigger UK departure from the EU, it just sent the sitting parliament a strong demand signal. It's up to them to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, or not, in a monumentally stupid game of international diplomatic chicken. (Also, a large majority of MPs in the House of Commons are actively opposed to Brexit. Absent the referendum, a free vote on Brexit in the Commons would have been defeated by a 2:1 majority.)

Secondly, both Scotland and NI voted to stay: in the case of Scotland by a stomping 62/38 margin. The European Communities Act 1972 is effectively baked into Scottish constitutional law, per the House of Lords report, and can't be amended without the active cooperation of the Scottish parliament. Trying to override this in Westminster would trigger a new and excitingly different constitutional crisis and almost certainly lead to Scottish secession on the fast track.

Meanwhile, Scotland is already lobbying the European Commission to protect Scotland's EU membership, and it looks likely that right now the final say in whether Brexit happens lies with Nicola Sturgeon, who is First Minister of a nation that voted to stay (and leads a strongly pro-European government). Taking Scotland out of the EU against the will of the voters and their elected government would also put Scottish independence back on the fast track—and this time previously staunch supporters of the union such as J. K. Rowling are already changing their tune.

I now confess to having run out of clues. I have got no idea where this is all going to end up. If the next leader of the Conservative Party in Westminster (presumptively Bojo, although I am having nightmares about Theresa May getting the job) wants a fig-leaf for switching to "remain", Oor Nicola is about the best that they could hope for. On the other hand, if the Commission are serious about wanting the UK out, they could insist on keeping Scotland as a separate member state, just to add to the pain. The possibilities are endless, within limits. I do not expect the Queen to stick her finger in the buzzing, sparking, shorting constitutional mains socket: she's not that stupid. But that's about all I can rule out at this point.



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The Traveling Salesperson Problem – By Norvig

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USA_landmarks_map = Coordinate_map(lines("""
Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota 244, Keystone, SD       43.879102       -103.459067
Toltec Mounds, Scott, AR       34.647037       -92.065143
Ashfall Fossil Bed, Royal, NE  42.425000       -98.158611
Maryland State House, 100 State Cir, Annapolis, MD 21401       38.978828       -76.490974
The Mark Twain House & Museum, Farmington Avenue, Hartford, CT     41.766759       -72.701173
Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Oregon      45.711564       -121.519633
Mammoth Cave National Park, Mammoth Cave Pkwy, Mammoth Cave, KY        37.186998       -86.100528
Bryce Canyon National Park, Hwy 63, Bryce, UT  37.593038       -112.187089
USS Alabama, Battleship Parkway, Mobile, AL    30.681803       -88.014426
Graceland, Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, TN        35.047691       -90.026049
Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center, Manteo, NC   35.908226       -75.675730
Vicksburg National Military Park, Clay Street, Vicksburg, MS   32.346550       -90.849850
Statue of Liberty, Liberty Island, NYC, NY     40.689249       -74.044500
Mount Vernon, Fairfax County, Virginia 38.729314       -77.107386
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, Williston, North Dakota 1804, ND       48.000160       -104.041483
San Andreas Fault, San Benito County, CA       36.576088       -120.987632
Chickasaw National Recreation Area, 1008 W 2nd St, Sulphur, OK 73086   34.457043       -97.012213
Hanford Site, Benton County, WA        46.550684       -119.488974
Spring Grove Cemetery, Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, OH     39.174331       -84.524997
Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve, Arco, ID 43.416650       -113.516650
The Alamo, Alamo Plaza, San Antonio, TX        29.425967       -98.486142
New Castle Historic District, Delaware 38.910832       -75.527670
Gateway Arch, Washington Avenue, St Louis, MO  38.624647       -90.184992
West Baden Springs Hotel, West Baden Avenue, West Baden Springs, IN    38.566697       -86.617524
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Carlsbad, NM   32.123169       -104.587450
Pikes Peak, Colorado   38.840871       -105.042260
Okefenokee Swamp Park, Okefenokee Swamp Park Road, Waycross, GA        31.056794       -82.272327
Cape Canaveral, FL     28.388333       -80.603611
Glacier National Park, West Glacier, MT        48.759613       -113.787023
Congress Hall, Congress Place, Cape May, NJ 08204      38.931843       -74.924184
Olympia Entertainment, Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI    42.387579       -83.084943
Fort Snelling, Tower Avenue, Saint Paul, MN    44.892850       -93.180627
Hoover Dam, Boulder City, CO   36.012638       -114.742225
White House, Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC     38.897676       -77.036530
USS Constitution, Boston, MA   42.372470       -71.056575
Omni Mount Washington Resort, Mount Washington Hotel Road, Bretton Woods, NH   44.258120       -71.441189
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona    36.106965       -112.112997
The Breakers, Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, RI  41.469858       -71.298265
Fort Sumter National Monument, Sullivan's Island, SC   32.752348       -79.874692
Cable Car Museum, 94108, 1201 Mason St, San Francisco, CA 94108        37.794781       -122.411715
Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190    44.462085       -110.642441
French Quarter, New Orleans, LA        29.958443       -90.064411
C. W. Parker Carousel Museum, South Esplanade Street, Leavenworth, KS  39.317245       -94.909536
Shelburne Farms, Harbor Road, Shelburne, VT    44.408948       -73.247227
Taliesin, County Road C, Spring Green, Wisconsin       43.141031       -90.070467
Acadia National Park, Maine    44.338556       -68.273335
Liberty Bell, 6th Street, Philadelphia, PA     39.949610       -75.150282
Terrace Hill, Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA     41.583218       -93.648542
Lincoln Home National Historic Site Visitor Center, 426 South 7th Street, Springfield, IL      39.797501       -89.646211
Lost World Caverns, Lewisburg, WV      37.801788       -80.445630
"""), delimiter='\t', long_scale=48)


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Red Hat acquires API management company 3scale, will open-source the code

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Red Hat today announced that it’s acquiring 3scale, a company with software for managing the use of application programming interfaces (APIs) that companies can expose for other developers to use.

The deal is not material to Red Hat although the publicly traded open-source software vendor said that GAAP operating expenses will go up by $7 million in the 2017 fiscal year, according to a statement.

Red Hat intends to ship an on-premises version of 3scale in addition to the existing cloud service. And Red Hat will “open source the code in the Red Hat way,” Mike Piech, vice president and general manager of middleware at Red Hat, wrote in a blog post.

The software is a complement to Red Hat’s existing software, Piece wrote.

“The 3scale technology complements the Red Hat JBoss Middleware portfolio, adding a robust and comprehensive set of API management capabilities to the existing rich integration features offered in today’s Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP), JBoss Fuse, JBoss A-MQ and the Red Hat Mobile Application Platform,” he wrote. “Our customers have increased their priority on API management features for their integration projects, and we are excited to now be able to bring the 3scale offering to the table alongside our tried-and-true JBoss offerings.”

Competitor Apigee went public last year, and Mashape was acquired by Intel in 2013.

Customers include Campbell, Orange, and the Telegraph.

3scale started in 2007 and has offices in San Francisco and Barcelona. Investors include Javelin Venture Partners and Costanoa Venture Capital.

Red Hat expanded its functionality through its acquisition last year of devops software company Ansible.

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51% Of U.S. Muslims Want Sharia

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Submitted by Richard Spencer via JihadWatch.org,

Really, what did you expect?

A considerable portion of U.S. domestic and foreign policy is based on the assumption that Islam in the U.S. will be different: that Muslims here believe differently from those elsewhere, and do not accept the doctrines of violence against and subjugation of unbelievers that have characterized Islam throughout its history. But on what is that assumption based?

Nothing but wishful thinking. And future generations of non-Muslims will pay the price.

Muslims_Pray_Capitol

“Meanwhile, An Islamic Fifth Column Builds Inside America,” by Paul Sperry, IBD, October 1, 2015 (thanks to Pamela Geller)

In berating GOP presidential hopeful Ben Carson for suggesting a loyalty test for Muslims seeking high office, CNN host Jake Tapper maintained that he doesn’t know a single observant Muslim-American who wants to Islamize America.

 

“I just don’t know any Muslim-Americans — and I know plenty — who feel that way, even if they are observant Muslims,” he scowled.

 

Tapper doesn’t get out much. If he did, chances are he’d run into some of the 51% of Muslims living in the U.S. who just this June told Polling Co. they preferred having “the choice of being governed according to Shariah,” or Islamic law. Or the 60% of Muslim-Americans under 30 who told Pew Research they’re more loyal to Islam than America.

 

Maybe they’re all heretics, so let’s see what the enlightened Muslims think.

 

If Tapper did a little independent research he’d quickly find that America’s most respected Islamic leaders and scholars also want theocracy, not democracy, and even advocate trading the Constitution for the Quran.

 

These aren’t fringe players. These are the top officials representing the Muslim establishment in America today.

 

Hopefully none of them ever runs for president, because here’s what he’d have to say about the U.S. system of government:

  • Muzammil Siddiqi, chairman of both the Fiqh Council of North America, which dispenses Islamic rulings, and the North American Islamic Trust, which owns most of the mosques in the U.S.: “As Muslims, we should participate in the system to safeguard our interests and try to bring gradual change, (but) we must not forget that Allah’s rules have to be established in all lands, and all our efforts should lead to that direction.”
  • Omar Ahmad, co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the top Muslim lobby group in Washington: “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Quran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”
  • CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper: “I wouldn’t want to create the impression that I wouldn’t like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future.”
  • Imam Siraj Wahhaj, director of the Muslim Alliance in North America: “In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing. And the only thing that will remain will be Islam.”
  • Imam Zaid Shakir, co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, Calif.: “If we put a nationwide infrastructure in place and marshaled our resources, we’d take over this country in a very short time... What a great victory it will be for Islam to have this country in the fold and ranks of the Muslims.”...

Read more here...

These Islamic luminaries, who arguably spend more time with Muslims than Tapper, say the American Muslim community would rather live under a theocracy.



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A DAO Counter-Attack

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A DAO Counter-Attack

Friday the 17th of June was a dark day for The DAO. As many of you may have deduced, The DAO was attacked using the recursive call exploit inside the splitDAO() function. The attacker stole 3,641,694 ether which are currently located in a child DAO as can be seen here.

There is a lot of debate around this attack, what it means for Ethereum, and most importantly what the potential suggested solutions will mean for Ethereum. This post has nothing to do with any of this. This post is here to empower you, the DAO Token Holders (DTHs) to do something about this attack while we wait for a hard fork.

Plan of Action for the DAO Token Holders

What can we do from here on out? There are currently soft forks being implemented in the major Ethereum clients that would prevent any and all value transactions from going through via any contract that is either “The DAO” or a child DAO. This would prevent the attacker and any other DTH from moving any ether out of any v1.0 DAO. The choice of whether or not to implement this fork lies with the community.

But even if this fork is not implemented, the community can stop the attacker from ever withdrawing their ether, even after the 27-day period expires, by buying into the attacker’s DAO. This is not a complete solution and will probably never result in getting the stolen ether back to the original DTHs but at least it will prevent the attacker from seeing windfall profits.

Rationale and Aftermath

Why do this if there is a soft-fork?

The soft-fork is the better option, but it also depends on the wider Ethereum community to implement it. This counter-attack is something that you, the DAO Token Holders can start right now in case the soft fork is not implemented.

What do we gain by doing this?

One thing is for certain. This move can ensure that the attacker does not ever get any money out of this. From that point on, negotiations can continue with the attacker or a hard fork can happen to reimburse all the DAO Token Holders.

Timing is everything. As of now, Sunday the 19th of June we have about 25 days until the attacker’s child DAO creation phase closes. (14-Jul-2016 05:34:48). All of the steps outlined below have to be completed until then. The steps to achieve this would be the following:

Whitelist

The Curators would have to immediately whitelist the attacker’s child DAO: 0x304a554a310c7e546dfe434669c62820b7d83490.

New Proposal Creation

There is one nice detail in the DAO code which the DAO Token Holders can take advantage of. After the debating period of a split proposal is over, the original DAO is the private creation address for all child DAOs. What this means is that The DAO is the only entity that can create tokens in a child DAO without voting yes on the split proposal thanks to this line of code.

So the DAO should make a new proposal with the recipient being the attacker’s child DAO and the transaction data should be a call to createTokenProxy(), creating new tokens in the attacker’s child DAO with the beneficiary address being an address that the DAO trusts to perform the recursive split attack against the attacker.

The attacker’s child DAO has The DAO as its privateCreation address

The amount of ether that needs to be given to the child DAO can be relatively minimal since we can simply run the recursive split attack on them once we have tokens for their child DAO. We know that no one else has voted yes in the attacker’s split proposal so nobody besides the DAO can mount this attack.

Only 2 people voted yes in the attacker’s split proposal. Both smart contracts.

Voting

A large proportion of the DTHs need to vote for the proposal to reach quorum within the 2-week debating period in order to pass it and be able to execute the attack. Reminder: If DTHs vote on a proposal they can not transfer/sell tokens, this may be a challenge but is required for The DAO to do anything.

Execution

Fourteen days later we execute the proposal and The DAO will create tokens for the attacker’s child DAO. Note that in a case of a soft fork the proposal execution will fail here. At that point we can run the recursive attack on their DAO (which we have recreated) and potentially negotiate with the attacker. They can defend against our attack by joining the split. And then we can repeat this process again and again… ad infinitum. This is why this is not a “perfect” solution but just a way to prevent them from ever seeing any of the money. A hard fork is still the only clear solution.

Other Attackers?

Someone may ask the very legitimate question … what about other attackers? What if someone else tries to pull the recursive split attack on The DAO again and the soft fork is not deployed or accepted by the community? The exploit is out there and many people can probably recreate it. But what people need to remember is that such an exploit drains ether from The DAO into a child DAO. An attacker will still have to go through the 27-day creation phase to try and access the stolen ether.

A solution to prevent this attack from happening again is for as many DTHs as possible to vote yes on all open split proposals so that if someone tries to pull this again we can follow them and pull the same attack back on their child DAO making sure they can never access their ether.

Endgame

Unfortunately each child DAO is an identical copy of the original DAO containing the same attack vector. They are all vulnerable to the recursive split exploit and as such there is no real way to safely get the funds out since the attacker can and will react.

What this blog post wants to show is that there exists a way to stop the attacker from getting the money out even after the 27 days period has passed, but it relies on many moving parts and has several potential failure mechanisms.

Is this an Alternative to a Hard Fork?

Using this attack in conjunction with a soft fork 2.0 which could selectively target the attacker’s child DAO, preventing them from counter attacking when we perform our recursive split attack could allow us to successfully recover the stolen ether. However this is much easier said than done. It would be a very complicated soft fork that could have implications on the Ethereum Network if done improperly, and it would take a long time to accomplish. Specifically we would need:

  • 25 days until the attack on the attacker’s child DAO could start (many things have go right during this period)
  • 7 days for the split proposal debating period (during this time a soft fork 2.0 would have to be implemented and adopted by the community)
  • 27 days for the creation phase of the new DAO. During this period we would recursive split attack the child DAO to drain it into our own child DAO. Thanks to the soft fork 2.0 the attacker would be unable to react.
  • 14 days to pass a new contract proposal to move the ether to a refund contract.
  • Assuming no setbacks, and perfect coordination with all relevant parties the refund process of the stolen ETH could begin 73 days from now.

The attacker can prevent this by draining the original DAO into any other random child DAO. We know their attack contracts have already voted in many other split proposals. Since they are not the Curator in those proposals they can have no direct financial gain. But by doing so they could render a soft fork that would specifically target their child DAO moot by draining The DAO into multiple child DAOs.

How can we defend against this? This is why the soft fork 2.0 has to be a complicated one. The DAO can pull the counter-attack described in this post to all of the drained child DAOs. A soft fork 2.0 has to be able to identify and block all such child DAOs from reacting to the DAO’s counter-attack while allowing The DAO to perform this attack.

If that can happen successfully then after a long period of time we could end up with many child DAOs under friendly control. At that point the friendly drained DAOs can push their ether into a refund contract for the DTHs to claim their portion back.

What we described above is a very lengthy process with too many points of failure. It might be a possible alternative solution to performing a hard fork of the Ethereum network, but it is a much more complicated solution. The more complicated the soft-fork solution is, the more pitfalls implementing the fork in the clients could have. Such pitfalls could lead to unintentional loss of consensus between clients due to minor mistakes in the implementation of one client. In the end the hard fork is the simple solution that will be guaranteed to solve the problem.

What is the Solution?

Soft fork, hard fork, counter-attack, doing nothing and multiple combinations of these options are all possible ways to follow from here on out. Many people have stepped up in the last few days to put their own projects and holidays on hold to discuss all of these potential scenarios and their implications. The coordination and calm discussions between seemingly competing developers, mining pools and exchanges that make up the Ethereum network has been nothing short of inspiring!

It seems evident that this community understands we are all on the same team and all want what is best for the future of the Ethereum network. I am confident that a consensus will be reached once all of the options have been fully discussed.



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