What Is A Smart Contract Audit?
A smart contract audit is a comprehensive methodological examination and analysis of the code of a smart contract that is used to interact with a cryptocurrency or blockchain.
This process is conducted to find errors, issues, and security vulnerabilities in the code to suggest improvements and ways to fix them. Generally, smart contract audits are necessary, as most contracts relate to financial assets or valuables.
How do smart contract audits work?
Determine the scope of the audit. Smart contracts and project specifications are defined by the project and overall architecture. A specification helps the audit team understand the goals of the project when writing and using the code. Provide an initial quote based on the amount of work required. Create a first draft of the report with the errors found and provide it to the project team for feedback. and subsequent improvements. Publish the final report considering any action taken by the team to resolve the issues raised.
What are the different types of Smart Contracts?
Smart contracts are created and deployed over the network using programming languages such as Solidity and Viper. And you must have enough ETH for the deployment process Smart contracts are classified into 4 different types according to their use by the programmers for building applications. Here are the types:
- Decentralized Autonomous Organization — It consists of a set of rules established and controlled by the members of the organization and not influenced by outside entities.
- Smart legal contract — Includes strict legal resources
- Applied Logics’ contracts — Built on a decentralized network that combines a smart contract with a front-end user interface.
- Distributed application
How can smart contracts be secured?
One of the main reasons behind organizations using smart contract technology is its strong security posture. It acts as an advocate between the two parties involved in the transaction. However, there have been instances where platforms running on smart contracts were compromised during SDLC due to the unhealthy implementation of smart contracts, improper security measures, and vulnerability exploitation.
Basics of Smart Contract Auditing
While you may have started thinking about smart contract audit costs, it is important to understand the basics first. So, what will be the infrastructure for smart contract audit? One of the first areas of focus in structuring your smart contract audit should be to mention common issues such as reentrant mistakes, compilation errors, and stack problems. Another notable area to focus on smart contract audits refers to the flaws and security issues identified in the smart contract host platform. In addition, smart contract auditors should also focus on breaking the testing of smart contracts by simulating different attacks on the contract.
Structure of a smart contract audit
Key areas to consider when auditing smart contracts:
- Common errors include stack issues, compilation, and re-entry errors.
- Known flaws and security flaws of the Smart Contract Host Platform.
- Break test smart contract
What does a smart contract security audit process cost?
The exact cost of operating smart contract audit services depends on several key factors.
First, a big factor is whether a company or start-up uses its in-house team or expert outsourced dev team.
While the cost associated with outsourcing a smart contract audit is high, the chances of identifying security vulnerabilities are likely to be much better. Because of their level of expertise and ability to look at blockchain projects from new angles.
How much does a smart contract audit cost?
The exact cost of the audit depends on the number of smart contracts to be tested. Typically, an audit will run into thousands of dollars. The cost of a typical large project can easily exceed $10,000. The audit company running your audit and its reputation will also affect what you pay.
Final Thoughts
On a final note, it is quite clear that smart contract audits can be a promising tool for improving the functionality of smart contracts. What seemed almost impenetrable contained some security vulnerabilities. The cost of a smart contract audit can vary greatly depending on the platform or tool you use. We are at kointrack, making blockchain technology accessible to people.
