Transforming Web3 Security: Why Reactive Approaches Fall Short

As we step into a new year, it’s essential to acknowledge the rapid advancements in various industries, including quantum computing and artificial intelligence. However, the web3 industry’s security landscape has been lagging behind.

The shift from a centralized model to a decentralized architecture in web3 has expanded the attack surface, creating an inherent security paradox. While decentralization is the backbone of web3’s innovation, it also creates a permanently exposed attack surface. With hundreds of billions of transactions volume annually, the stakes for getting security right have never been higher.

Despite this, the industry still relies heavily on reactive, manual audits as its security foundation. However, this approach has proven to be insufficient and outdated. According to data, 90% of exploited contracts have undergone audits. It’s time for web3 to evolve its security practices, just like web2 software development did, by incorporating a range of tools and techniques, such as continuous integration, automated testing, and runtime monitoring.

Web3’s Unique Challenges

There are three key reasons why the state of smart contract security practices is alarming:

  • Immutability: Smart contract code is permanent, making it challenging to fix vulnerabilities quickly.
  • Visibility: Potential attackers have visibility into the source code, making it easier to find vulnerabilities.
  • Direct control over assets: Smart contract exploits result in direct, often irreversible, financial losses.

These challenges require a fundamental rethink of security in web3.

Why Audits Alone Fall Short

Audits play a crucial role in deploying secure smart contracts, but they shouldn’t be the only line of defense. Manual audits have limitations, and even the most advanced auditors can’t catch everything. The complexity of smart contracts and the potential attack vectors make it virtually impossible for manual reviews to identify every potential weakness.

The Euler Finance hack in 2023, which resulted in losses of over $200M despite ten different audits, is a prime example of the limitations of relying solely on audits.

The Case for Proactive Security

Our industry’s reliance on audits has created an irresponsible status quo for web3 security. It’s time to adopt proactive security measures that empower developers to secure code as they write it. This approach can automate a significant portion of the audit process, allowing security experts to focus on finding high-impact vulnerabilities.

Tools like Olympix, a dev-first web3 security platform, can catch 20-50% of vulnerabilities before the project reaches its first audit. This approach has already shown promising results, with an internal analysis indicating that $60M in exploited, previously audited contracts could have been prevented in Q3 ’24 alone.

The Path Forward: From Reactive to Proactive

To transform web3 security, it’s essential to adopt a sophisticated, multi-layered approach that combines proactive, developer-first tools with traditional audits, bug bounty programs, and on-chain monitoring. This approach will help create multiple layers of protection and ultimately secure the future of web3.

As the founder of Olympix, I firmly believe that the future of our industry will be determined by trust, starting with our ability to protect the assets our peers entrust us with. With billions at stake, the robustness and longevity of web3 are on our shoulders. It’s time to secure our future proactively.

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