This article is sponsored by Cyfrin.

Even though it’s 2023, we still see plenty of hacks occurring in the crypto space. From DeFi to NFTs to DAOs, exploits have become an all-too-common occurrence, causing millions of dollars worth of assets to be lost or stolen due to bugs or loopholes that were exploited by malicious parties.

As such, smart contract audits are crucial in maintaining the security of most crypto protocols that operate using an underlying set of complex smart contracts. To the uninformed, a smart contract audit is the examination and review of a protocol’s smart contracts, performed by qualified third parties with the necessary knowledge and experience, known as smart contract auditors. Depending on the scope of the audit, the smart contract auditors will perform extensive testing on different sections of a smart contract’s code to check for any security vulnerabilities or other potential issues. The auditor will then share a report that covers any detected issues and their level of severity. 

Why Are Smart Contract Audits Important?

For crypto newbies, you may wonder why projects are willing to pay a good amount of money to get their smart contracts audited. For starters, a comprehensive smart contract audit helps to provide an unbiased analysis of a project’s code base. Many Web3 projects tend to be developed by teams of few individuals or even just a lone contributor. There is an inherent risk of the developers potentially missing bugs or loopholes without someone else checking their work, especially in new and innovative protocols. By having more people look over the many lines of code that are involved in the protocol’s contracts, auditors can help identify potential issues and propose solutions to address any loopholes or backdoors that could put a protocol’s funds at risk or allow for unintended behaviour. 

Besides that, a proper smart contract audit acts as a form of  ‘stamp of approval’ for a protocol, indicating that it has achieved some level of security, instilling greater confidence in crypto users and investors. While audits tend to be done in the early stages of a new project in the market, it is also important for existing projects to continuously review any major upgrades before they are deployed. Instead of ‘testing in production’, which can lead to disastrous consequences, protocol upgrades can be deployed on a testnet, allowing auditors and users to detect any errors and make the required changes to the code before they are deployed on the mainnet.
 

Source: Rekt News

However, it’s important to note that a smart contract audit does not guarantee complete protection against all attacks. Protocols, such as Alpha Finance and Harvest Finance, have lost millions due to exploits, even after their code was reviewed by multiple reputable firms. Yet, as evidenced by the Rekt leaderboard, unaudited platforms have suffered worse by comparison. Ultimately, smart contract audits should not be misinterpreted as a silver bullet against hackers but rather as an added layer of protection to survive in the wild west of crypto.

Introducing Cyfrin

If you’re on a project looking for a good auditor, a possible company to consider is Cyfrin, a smart contract auditing firm that provides world-class auditing services, code reviews, and Web3 education. With a team consisting of top auditors, software engineers, and educators in crypto, Cyfrin goes beyond ensuring your protocol’s security, improving your smart contracts to be even better than before:

• Patrick Collins
  Former Lead Developer Advocate at ChainLink, and creator of the two most watched smart contract tutorials on earth, co-founder Patrick Collins is on a mission to make Web3 more accessible to both retail and developers alike at scale.
   

• Alex Roan
  As the CTO and co-founder of Cyfrin, Alex is a former engineer at ChainLink and has secured more than $5 billion in some of the most important DeFi protocols in the space, such as Compound Finance.
   

• Hans
  As the co-founder of Cyfrin and currently the top auditor on Code4rena, Hans has worked as a developer for over ten years, often becoming the top earner in competitive audits. Additionally, he is the creator of Solodit, one of the most popular tools used by top web3 security professionals today.
   

• 0Kage
  0Kage is a security engineer and a veteran of smart contract auditing. Previously involved in trading and quantitative finance, 0Kage is a regular competitor in audit contests at Code4rena and Sherlock, claiming the top ranking in past competitions.
   

• Carlos
  Carlos is passionate about programming and reading, particularly in the genres of business and dystopia. Carlos is a fierce competitive auditor, having claimed the top spot in C4 competitions multiple times.
   

• Gio
  A physicist and scientific software engineer turned blockchain engineer and smart contract security researcher, Gio’s passion for continuous learning mirrors Cyfrin’s dedication to being at the forefront of smart contract security and empowering developers to do more.

The Cyfrin team thrives on finding as many bugs as possible and finding ways to improve a project’s codebase and test suite. Notably, they’ve audited several novel projects and contracts, such as Beanstalk’s Wells integration, the Hyperliquid DEX as well as LinkPool’s LiquidSDIndex Pool.

Cyfrin’s Auditing Process

1. The auditing process begins with an estimation of the price and timeline by Cyfrin’s engineers based on the scope and complexity of the project’s codebase. 

2. Next, the team will decide on a start date and a selected commit hash to be used as the base of the audit.

3. The Cyfrin team will then begin the audit based on the agreed timeline. Communication between the project’s engineers and Cyfrin is highly recommended.

4. After Cyfrin has analyzed a project’s codebase, they will publish an initial report that details the list of issues found, categorized into various tiers of severity.

5. Using the recommendations in the initial report, a project can begin implementing solutions to mitigate the issues detected.

6. After the bugs or flaws have been fixed, Cyfrin’s engineers will re-check these issues and amend the initial report based on whether they were resolved or acknowledged without any solution, along with any additional information. The final report will then be issued to the project and may be published openly based on the project’s discretion.

Source: Cyfrin

Besides performing contract audits and code reviews, Cyfrin also focuses on Web3 education, believing that knowledge should be free for users to take advantage of in the crypto world. The firm has created several videos and other educational material on detecting vulnerabilities, debugging, and more, which can be accessed from their Resources page. Besides that, the team is also working on an educational course for budding Web3 developers.

How to Get in Touch

If you’re interested in getting a smart contract audit or code review from Cyfrin, you can make your request directly on their website or send an email to audits@cyfrin.io. Interested parties may also book a call with the team to share more information about their project and the scope of the audit.