This is a tribute to Istanbul and all the trust gathered @trustX Devconnect week in Instanbul.

Variable Manipulation

Manipulation of price, rewards, rates,
It comes with many names.
Just like Istanbul, also known in history as Konstantinopel or Stamboul,
With its beating heart residing in this one place.
For manipulation, it is in this one variable.
This variable can be maneuvered up and down,
Altering with drastic velocity,
And seemingly unfathomable unpredictability,
Gaining profits via a certain kind of repeatability.
That is perceived as a great deal of maniputability.

In 2023, cases of manipulation are prevalent,
Week after week, mounting more than sixty-eight,
Until the very present moment.
One wonders why it is so omnipresent?

There is a thin line between manipulation and what is considered normal operation.
The same equation fulfills
A kind of manifestation
Of giving credits for participation,
From pools of other people’s contribution.

Be it rewards accrued, rate deserved, or price reached,
A slight edge can be magnified in a flash,
Accessing a different kind of cash.
Through a clever conjunction of hashes,
One can set ablaze some logic to ashes.

Manipulation is the dark side of the moon,
The other side of a coin,
After all, variables need to be able to vary, and
How a variable varies becomes the quintessential character
Of our enquiry.


balanceOf is often involved.
It is not just the balanceofs of major tokens on various exchanges.
It is not just the balanceOfs of minor tokens of little known origin.
It is not just the balanceOfs of aToken, cToken, dToken and eToken of lending protocols.
It is not just the balanceOfs of shares in a vault.
It is ALL of them.
It is all of those that can be transformed at will by any one at any time.


Manipulation, like the Bosporus bridge, is a crossing point, a meeting place of
Logics of balanceOfs, from one protocol ending on one side to some unknown otherness starting on the other.


Like good old fashioned auditors, the
Eyes are on functions of balanceOf, paying attention to
Their whereabouts,
Their ranges,
All the intermediate stages, that can cause
Any kind of changes.


This gets tricky sometimes, when the balanceOf
Comes from somewhere else,
Or something else.


balanceOf appears normal.
balanceOf is not novel.
balanceOf is everywhere, where it can hide in
Plain sight and doesn't play fair.


Where do balanceOf live?
Yes, the home is the seemingly simplest, most
Known primitive in DeFi, the
Fungible token standard of the most general sense.
In ERC twenty there lies your bounty.