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Learn moreWhile blockchains began life to facilitate the development of cryptocurrencies, they are now widely used across businesses for smart contracts, online transaction management, asset record management, and securing critical data. Acting as digital ledgers residing in a distributed infrastructure, they enable the secure storage and structuring of important information in a manner that ensures the integrity and availability of the information. It is the principle of the immutable ledger that underpins the evolution of blockchain.
This technology has created the need for crypto audit to provide independent assurance of the validity, security, and authenticity of the blockchains. Token audit is a highly specialized practice that few organizations can undertake, with our experienced and knowledgeable staff, Hacken, one of the leading crypto audit companies, is ideally positioned to provide blockchain security audits services. Our auditors have a comprehensive understanding of blockchain and its implementing algorithms and underlying encryption methodology.
A crypto audit performed by a professional cryptocurrency auditor provides for the use of automated bug detection tools to reveal commonly known vulnerabilities and further manual execution of systematic and structured code review of the blockchain project. The key goal of crypto audit is the detection of high-severity bugs in a code. Before conducting an audit, the security team of the crypto audit company needs to get a deep understanding of the project’s architecture and use cases as well as recognize the key components of the target system. The key phase of blockchain audit is threat modeling that reveals data spoofing and data tempering and enables the detection of DDoS attacks on a blockchain system. And the last phase of crypto audit provides for the exploitation of revealed vulnerabilities to estimate the scope of potential threats a project under test can face and their further remediation.
Token audit conducted by crypto audit companies allows projects to prevent the exploitation of vulnerabilities that may result in the loss of clients’ assets. Blockchain audits also allow projects to prevent public access to smart contracts and, thus, protect them against facing the exploitation of their vulnerabilities. A crypto audit performed by a reputable cryptocurrency auditor will also serve as the indication of projects’ reliability to existing and potential investors.
The main factors determining the duration of a token audit are the project’s size and complexity. Depending on these factors, the duration of a crypto audit can vary between 1-2 days and a few weeks or even months.
The pricing scheme for a crypto audit heavily varies among crypto audit companies and, in most cases, is set up on an individual basis. For example, the price of crypto audit performed by the cryptocurrency auditor Hacken ranges between €8K and €30K.
Blockchain protocols enable the storage and sharing of transactional information in a manner that preserves the integrity of the information. They provide the foundation for applications that require secure data sharing facilities without having to rely on a central repository to maintain a definitive copy of the data. The protocols establish the rules that govern the transfer of data via the blockchain, including data structures and exchange mechanisms.
The rapid development of cryptocurrencies, online transactions, and smart contracts have been built on blockchain protocols. The users of these applications can be isolated from the implementation details of the blockchain, and the use of peer-to-peer or machine-to-machine infrastructure to support the blockchain protocols provides a decentralized solution for near real-time information sharing. Blockchain protocols rely on cryptographic consensus protocols to ensure the immutability and irreversibility of all transactions made by the application.
While the use of blockchains can improve efficiencies, reduce costs and eliminate the need for a central trusted data custodian, it comes with its specific risks on top of the traditional business risks of the system it replaces. That is why every solid blockchain player prioritizes the conduct of a crypto audit.
The security of blockchain protocols is underpinned by cryptographic technology based on private key management. If the end-user manages these keys, then they become solely responsible for the secure management of these keys. Loss of keys will result in loss of access to the information; unauthorized disclosure of keys can result in the compromise of the information by a malicious attacker. The correct management of keys, including backup functions and secure access, are critical controls for these risks.
The security of blockchain protocols is only as good as the code that implements the protocols. Any vulnerabilities in the developed code can be exploited as vulnerabilities in the blockchain. As an emerging technology that is rapidly evolving, access to proficient code developers can present challenges. Through verification and validation of code is required to ensure vulnerabilities are eliminated or mitigated such that no weaknesses in the blockchain itself may be exploited.
The operation of blockchains relies on the principles of consensus and governance. The consensus is defined as the method of establishing a single agreed version of a blockchain ledger that is accepted by all parties that use the blockchain. Governance is defined as the method of maintaining and revising blockchain protocols. If the parties cannot reach an agreement on issues of consensus and governance, then the blockchain will fail.
Crypto audit can be summarized as an assessment of whether the recorded transactions within a blockchain ledger are verifiably complete and correct based upon the available evidence of the transactions recorded in the ledger.
The audit of a blockchain ledger requires a detailed understanding of the technology that implements the protocols in order to understand how to audit blockchain effectively. Hacken is a leader in the field of blockchain audits, with the skills and knowledge to deliver effective solutions for users of blockchain technology