AmaZix, as part of its continuous efforts to strengthen its blockchain startup and ICO management services, today announced they have partnered with US-based blockchain security firm Hosho. This latest partnership brings a new range of blockchain security services courtesy of Hosho, including leading smart contract auditing as well as penetration testing.
Smart contracts, the digital protocols that help verify conditions of a contract and execute them, are increasingly popular in blockchain applications. Smart contract proliferation is underway but its rapid growth has also been marked by a distinct lack of standards by which to measure security.
The high-profile exploits of smart contracts on blockchain, typically on Ethereum, have shown that smart contracts can be extremely vulnerable to hacking attempts. The pioneers themselves found out via the infamous DAO exploit in 2016. More recently, repeated Parity wallet exploits and accidents have already resulted in the loss of millions of dollars worth of crypto.
Joint researchers from National University of Singapore (NUS), Yale-NUS College and University College London (UCL) found in March 2018 that over 34,000 smart contracts out of 1 million surveyed contained coding vulnerabilities — that’s over 3% of smart contracts surveyed which it calls “greedy, prodigal and suicidal”.
Hosho’s own audits of projects that collectively raised $1 billion show that more than 1 in 4 have critical vulnerabilities while 3 out of 5 have at least one security issue.
Hosho’s own vast experience means that its engineers have audited more smart contracts than anyone else in the industry. Its team’s varied skills have been behind the crypto exchange architecture eventually sold to Kraken and the operation of the world’s largest Monero pool, to name a few achievements.
Let the ethical hackers show you your flaws… before the real world does
Blockchain companies and their communities are juicy targets for hackers these days, what with all that data and large capital lying around waiting to be exploited. As such, AmaZix is excited about the new prospects at disposal thanks to this partnership with Hosho.
Hosho’s penetration testing services include a series of recon, scanning, manual review and risk assessment processes to ensure blockchain companies’ systems are better secured to face the real world.
“Keeping communities safe is a longstanding priority of AmaZix. Education and awareness is part of that, but so is proactive diligence in the technical aspects of partner projects. In the absence of industry standards, we see smart contract auditing and penetration testing to be essential components of good security in blockchain systems. In our view, there are no better-qualified people to do this than Hosho engineers.”
“It is Hosho’s goal to push the blockchain industry towards maturation by improving the overall security awareness and guidance. Partnering with AmaZix is a natural fit because their philosophy aligns with our own, striving towards the long-term development of a strong and secure ecosystem.”
