The decentralized and pseudo-anonymous nature of blockchain has the potential to fundamentally transform the world and how we interact with one another; however, with great promise also comes great risks from attacks by malicious actors. Just within the past couple weeks, hacks to exchanges (e.g., Coinrail) and to the smart contracts of various blockchain projects (e.g., BeautyChain) have increased skepticism and reminded us of the looming threat of hackers within the blockchain space. So what do we do from here?
A good approach to tackling these such issues is to be both reactive and proactive. Reactive to learn from and address mistakes that others have made, and proactive to anticipate potential security threats that may arise. For IoTeX, a blockchain project building privacy-centric infrastructure for the Internet of Things (IoT), security of the user’s tokens and data is a top priority — this is why IoTeX has partnered with CertiK, a formal verification platform for smart contracts and blockchain ecosystems.
How does CertiK verify platforms and smart contracts?
CertiK is a blockchain and smart contract verification platform founded by top formal verification experts from Yale and Columbia University and former senior software engineers from Google, Facebook and FreeWheel. Different from the traditional testing approaches, CertiK attempts to mathematically prove blockchain ecosystem and smart contracts are hacker-resistant and bug-free. CertiK’s key features include a layer-based decomposition approach, pluggable proof engine, machine-checkable proof objects, certified DApp libraries, and smart labelling.
What is the purpose of the partnership?
IoTeX’s engineering team consists of Ph.Ds in Cryptography and Distributed Systems — although they can be counted on to create bug-free smart contracts, IoTeX and any other project can benefit from CertiK’s verification sign-off to have even greater assurance that their blockchain and smart contracts are hacker-resistant and bug-free. CertiK has verified the IOTX token contract, and IoTeX will continue to work with CertiK and other global project contributors to ensure their blockchain and smart contracts are truly secure.
What can IoTeX and CertiK work on in the future?
One key challenge within the blockchain and security communities is achieving privacy-preserving computations in the form of smart contracts, which can be further formally verified autonomously. The partnership between IoTeX, an innovator in the lightweight privacy domain, and CertiK, a leader in formal verification and security of smart contracts, brings us one step closer on the long journey towards highly secure yet private smart contracts on public blockchains, including IoTeX blockchain.
IoTeX looks forward to working with CertiK and other ecosystem members to combine strengths in cryptography and distributed systems to build blockchain ecosystems that are both prosperous and sustainable.
