Episode 3 | Stefan Beyer on Smart Contract Audits

With the launch of Ethereum in 2014, for the first time ever, we could program decentralized applications that run on a blockchain. But in order to become mainstream, their inherent security is of paramount importance. If poorly coded, these smart contracts are vulnerable to hacking. With a significant amount of funds locked into these smart contracts, the losses can be irreversible for the investors. One way to mitigate the risk of having smart contracts exploited by hackers is by having smart contracts audits. Smart contracts can be transformative but the only way to get there is if people know with certainty that money cannot be stolen from their smart contract. Stefan Beyer is a consultant in Distributed Ledger Technology and Cryptography focusing on blockchain architectures and smart contract security and has under his belt more than 100 smart contract audits. Stefan has recently co-founded Oak Security, a company offering security auditing services for a number of blockchains, with a special focus on third-generation blockchains such as the Cosmos, Terra, and Polkadot ecosystems. In this episode, we discuss; Smart contract audits and common mistakes for developers writing smart contracts; Planning a smart contract audit and how should the client prepare; The evolution of smart contracts and new concerns faced by auditors; Vulnerabilities of smart contracts leading to hacks; Where to start to become a smart contract auditor and blockchain programming languages available; And many more... For shownotes/links to the episode, please visit www.theaccountantquits.com