Solving blockchain’s security problem one smart contract at a time
Security has held significant weight in arguments against enterprise blockchain initiatives. Endpoint vulnerabilities, risks of malware to keys, alack of regulation and more have created hesitation in a space ripe for innovation — with the right security protocols.
“There was nobody in this space that we saw laser focused on just blockchain security,” said Hartej Sawhney (pictured), senior advisor at Pink Sky Capital and cofounder of blockchain security company Hosho.io. “So we began focusing on auditing smart contracts … and then putting a seal of approval on that” to mitigate risk.
After seeing the low quality of smart contracts surrounding initial coin offerings at crypto hedge funds, Sawhney and his partner Yo Sub Kwon set out to create Hosho as an efficient, reliable auditing tool. Sawhney spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at the Polycon18 event in the Bahamas. They discussed the vulnerabilities in current blockchain processes and how Hosho is reducing ICO risk.
As much attention as blockchain has gotten from companies and individuals alike, serious security considerations are still rare among even those who face tangible risks. “We have the best hedge funds cutting checks into companies before the smart contract is even written, let alone audited,” Sawhney said.
What Sawhney hopes to do with Hosho is partner with these hedge funds and affirm their commitment to security early on, both internally and within the smart contract. Hosho secures these agreements by doing a line-by-line code review of each smart contract that’s written, conducting a gas analysis and a static analysis, and making sure that the smart contract follows the guidelines of its white paper.
“We can mitigate the risks for exchanges and for investors,” he said. “There’s no chance that this is going to be hacked, money won’t be stolen, money won’t be lost, and there’s no chance of a security vulnerability.
