Blockchain technologies play a key role in the current business realities since they help ensure safe and fast transactions for buying, selling, and exchanging various kinds of assets between holders from different corners of the world. Speaking about blockchain technology, one should consider smart contracts as their essential element.
Thanks to them, you do not need to involve third parties to ensure the execution and confirmation of a financial transaction: everything happens automatically according to predetermined conditions.
Given the widespread introduction of smart contracts in various business spheres and industries, the problem of protecting the data of both parties of the agreement from theft and unauthorized use has arisen. In this case, small firms and large corporations prefer to use the service of various smart contract auditing companies.
The Best Crypto Audit Companies
To pick the best blockchain audit company, you should consider many aspects and learn about the best representatives in the market. Below, you can check the list of top smart contract audit companies, and learn more about their main features, completed projects, and many more.
Hacken
Hacken is a consulting and security firm founded in 2017. Currently, it is the undisputed leader in the industry, with over 700 successful projects to its credit. Haken supports many blockchain types, including NEAR, Solana, BNB, Ethereum, and more. Among Haken’s clients, you can find such industry giants as VeChain, VeChain, Huobi, and many others.
Since the year of establishment, Hacken has been steadily expanding its audience and strengthening its position in the cybersecurity market. Hacken employs exclusively high-class specialists, including scientists and white hat hackers who are engaged in developing and improving the blockchain security ecosystem.
The company’s range of services includes various penetration tests on the Internet, evaluating the risks of mobile hacking applications, developing and coordinating bug bounty programs, and so on.
Notably, this company is one of the few representatives of the industry that has received the Web 3.0 security standard certification from the two largest industry leaders, Coingeco and Coinmarketcap.
Trail of Bits
Next on our list is Trail of Bits which has a long list of clients, including Balancer, Compound, MakerDAO, Microsoft, etc. The company supports many networks, including Ethereum, Tezos, Polkadot, etc.
Trail of Bits currently boasts a close-knit team of security professionals oriented at identifying and fixing software, hardware, and code loopholes. The company has many years of experience developing solutions and tools to eliminate critical vulnerabilities. The company first entered the crypto market in 2012, when it was too early to talk about smart contracts.
One of the more notable instruments powered by this company is the Manticore. This patented solution is a multi-contract and multi-transaction emulator. In addition to this tool, you can find Cryptic, Echidna, and other market solutions specifically designed to work in different blockchains.
Quantstamp
Quantstamp is a universal smart contract verification protocol that runs on all currently available blockchains. Among the company’s main clients are Google, Ethereum Foundation, Facebook, and so on.
In addition to the wide range of supported chains, the company has a large workforce. Among them, there are not only doctors of sciences but also representatives from the ethical hacker community with many years of experience.
Quantstamp offers audit services for any programming language used to create smart contracts and blockchain applications. In addition to the direct audit of first-level blockchains, the company’s specialists are engaged in testing NFT and DeFi protocols and developing decentralized financial applications.
Compared with the previous representative, this company was founded in 2017 and managed to complete more than 200 projects. At the time of writing, the company’s operations have generated over $200 billion.
CertiK
CertiK is a company that is one of the leaders in the crypto security market that ensures the smooth operation of blockchains. This auditing firm is involved in formal verification issues, artificial intelligence technologies, and more. In addition, the company is known for an extensive list of partners with whom it has completed more than 1800 blockchain projects. Notably, CertiK supports all currently available blockchains.
Unlike many audit firms, this company has developed CertiK Chain, – a public blockchain that focuses on mathematically verifying the security of smart contracts using both formal and manual methods. In addition, the company’s security experts are engaged in various types of application penetration testing. The company’s partners include Lightspeed, DHVC, Golden Sachs, and others.
Least Authority
Least Authority uses cutting-edge security technologies and revolutionary privacy storage solutions. The specialty of this leading cybersecurity consulting company is the focus on confidentiality. At the time of writing the review, the company has two main products in its arsenal. The most famous of them is called Privatestorage. It is a unique centralized system designed to help customers store data. In addition, it facilitates collecting, processing, and disseminating personal data while complying with all security standards.
The second product powered by this security firm is called Tahoe LAFS. It is a decentralized and fault-tolerant storage. In addition to auditing smart contracts, the company focuses on penetration testing, studying the network and traffic, and introducing mechanisms and incentives. Like in most auditing firms, the company’s specialists are ready to participate in all stages of the product life cycle and advise developers on identifying and eliminating vulnerabilities.
Like most smart contract auditing companies, LeastAuthority operates within one of the most popular chains: Ethereum, Tezos, and Chia Network. At present, the company cannot boast such a large number of completed blockchain projects (about 80 security audits). At the same time, among the auditor’s clients, there are market giants like the Ethereum Foundation, Tezos Foundation, cLabs, etc.
ConsenSys Diligence
It is an audit firm that has on its account about 100 projects. Among its clients, there are Uniswap, Aave, Balancer, and others. The main field of activity of ConsenSys Diligence specialists from the company is the development of technological solutions and applications for the Ethereum blockchain (especially financial infrastructures).
Those who have come across the Ethereum smart contracts have probably heard of the proprietary product MythX. Compared to other security services, it is the most powerful automatic scanner for any kind of smart contract running on the Ethereum network. This solution offers users a robust and user-friendly API to access security analytics tools. In addition to the 100 successful projects mentioned above, this company identified and eliminated about 200 problems related to the Ethereum blockchain technology. Also, this smart contract security company offers the following top audit services:
- Fuzzing: a bug finder for first specs;
- Scribble: a special utility used for runtime checking and transitioning high-level specifications into Solidity code.
SlowMist
SlowMist is one of the top Chinese blockchain security companies. The platform was founded in 2018 and has since completed over 100 different security audit projects. At the time of writing, it supports about seven chains, including EOS, ONT, Ethereum, and others. Among their clients were such top representatives of the crypto market as Binance, Crypto.com, and Huobi. In addition to testing smart contracts, a company’s team of specialists checks electronic wallets and apps in the decentralized finance industry.
The platform has a service called Blockchain Threat Intelligence, where you can always get up-to-date information regarding security on crypto exchanges. In addition, SlowMist creates effective anti-money laundering solutions, software development, and more.
OpenZeppelin
This company is engaged in developing technologies and services in cybersecurity. At the time of writing, the company works exclusively with projects implemented on the Ethereum chain. The OpenZeppelin team has about 150 security audit projects on its account, which is not much compared to some of the above platforms. At the same time, among its clients, there are many leading representatives of the digital business market, including Coinbase, The Graph, Ethereum Foundation, and others.
One of the main products that the company is known for is the OpenZeppelin Contracts project, which is written in the Solidity language. It is the standard of any smart contract and a source of templates for creating new projects. Any developer can easily use ready-made templates via the personal Ethereum SDK.
OpenZeppelin is a revolutionary project that was the first to use gamification principles to discover critical smart contract security vulnerabilities. The gameplay is to find loopholes in smart contracts to pass to the next level. An example of this approach would be a game called “Ethernaut” written by Solidity. Suppose you are looking for a solution to automate the administration of smart contracts. In that case, OpenZeppelin offers its proprietary tool called “Defender”. With its help, you can improve security and increase data privacy in the infrastructure of transactions.
ChainSecurity
ChainSecurity is another platform that exclusively works with the Ethereum chain. At the time of writing, the company has completed more than 85 different projects in cooperation with such market players as Compound, Rarible, Maker, etc. The company’s employees have helped protect more than $17 billion in assets. Among the company’s specialists are crypto business professionals from the well-known university ETH Zurich.
Considering the strong competition in the Ethereum market, ChainSecurity created its automated audit platform. With its help, you can conduct smart contract security audits and test their viability, monitor key performance indicators, and more.
Runtime Verification
Runtime Verification is an audit company that supports all types of blockchains available at the time of writing. The team of this cybersecurity company has already completed over 100 projects together with such market representatives as Algorand, NASA, Tezos Foundation, etc.
This project is a research community that develops methods and tools for conducting security audits of virtual machines and smart contracts. The main emphasis of the platform is on dynamic methods of project analysis with the help of proprietary software. This software helps monitor processes’ progress and key indicators to identify errors and prepare detailed audit reports.
Currently, this tool creates standard models for various financial applications that you can use as ready-made templates for your future projects. In the arsenal of Runtime Verification, two iconic digital products specialize exclusively in analyzing the security of smart contracts.
- K Semantic Framework: this solution offers crypto contract proofs that can be used to evaluate the viability of Ethereum and Cardano smart contracts.
- Firefly: it is, in fact, a tool for analyzing the test coverage of any smart contracts created and launched on Ethereum. It is worth noting that this firm has successfully interacted with the Ethereum Foundation and assisted in creating a formal verification for Ethereum 2.0.
What is Smart Contract Auditing?
From a technical point of view, a smart contract audit is a detailed analysis of the code to detect security issues, weaknesses, and areas of inefficient coding. In addition to identifying problems, the purpose of an audit is to advise companies on possible options for fixing vulnerabilities.
The principle of functioning a crypto contract explains the importance of this process. The fact is that after its deployment, the participants in the contract do not have the opportunity to make changes to its conditions. In the event of a critical error, the only option would be to create a new contract, which can take time and extra money.
Currently, no platform that works in the crypto industry can do without an audit of the smart contract, as this is an important part of ensuring the security and reliability of blockchain applications. Below, you can learn more about the top smart contract auditors in the crypto market and determine the main features you should pay attention to while choosing one.
How to Choose a Smart Contract Auditor?
First, to pick a leading audit firm, you can use the ready-made list presented above. It includes only the best smart contract auditors that have proven themselves in the market. If you decide to select a blockchain security firm specializing in smart contract auditing on your own, you should pay attention to the completed projects. It can help you understand the scope and popularity of the projects the firm has been involved in. You can also find out if there have been cases of compromising the results of the network security check.
In addition, you need to consider the company’s experience and completed projects on certain types of blockchains. The fact is that most modern firms are engaged in checking only Ethereum projects because they are the most popular in the market. Suppose in the company’s projects list, there are use cases associated with other networks (for example, Polygon, BNB, Solana, and others). In that case, it shows their greater experience and the ability to detect a wider range of vulnerabilities.
Another important point when choosing a cyber security company is audit reports. Currently, many approaches are used to prepare the final smart contract audit report. Experts may describe the technical side of the project and the volume of possible solutions differently. The report must include a comprehensive description of all issues identified during the audit. In addition, the results of the analysis must be fully taken into account by the client’s team.
FAQ
It is a smart contracts verification and testing process to identify code inconsistencies, weaknesses, errors, and so on. As a rule, smart contract security audits are carried out by specialized firms.
You should pay attention to many features while choosing among smart contract auditing companies. The most important ones have supported blockchain technology, the number of completed crypto projects, the list of partners, etc.
Blockchain security firms use these solutions to perform code audits, find smart contract vulnerabilities, etc. Currently, you can find two big groups of tools that auditing firms use to identify security vulnerabilities: automated and manual.
Hacken is the number one smart contract audit firm that supports a wide range of blockchains and has a highly-professional team of software developers, data scientists, crypto security specialists, etc.