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Smart-Contract Audits: All You Need to Know

Smart-Contract Audit

Smart Contract as an Effective Way of Conducting Transactions

A smart contract provides the ability to perform reliable operations without intermediaries since they are fully programmed and are executed automatically.

Smart contracts are built on blockchain technology, which allows users and smart contract development companies to conduct transactions and transfer data and material value without banks or third parties.

No one can change the terms of a smart contract. Therefore, participants can trust all of the data that appears on the blockchain. Read more about innovations of a blockchain development company – Ethereum, also one of the most popular platforms for solidity smart contract development.

Ethereum smart contractThe advantages of smart contracts include:

  • Autonomy: once published on the blockchain network, a smart contract will always be run uniformly and automatically
  • Security: the safety and automatic execution of smart contracts are ensured by the decentralization and consensus algorithms according to which the blockchain system operates. It is an immutable network that keeps data confirmed by all participants.
  • Efficiency: smart contracts allow the elimination of inefficient, non-performing intermediary payloads. Transactions are conducted automatically, without the need for additional approval.
Smart contractContract
A program or transactional protocol that uses blockchain technologyBased on paperwork
Based on codeBased on law and legislation
Written in computer languageWritten in legal language
The terms cannot be changed (hard/soft fork needed)The terms can be changed, rewritten, or interpreted in a different way
The contract terms are automatically executed by all participantsThe contract terms may not be fulfilled, or can be poorly executed
In case of violation, the punishment, penalty, or sanction is automatically penalized In case of violation of the contract conditions, it is necessary to apply to the court
All transactions are carried out without third parties or intermediariesTransactions are carried out with a lot of intermediaries
Transactions are conducted with the help of crypto-currency transactionsTransactions are conducted in foreign currency through banks
When contract conditions are fulfilled, the exchange of values happens instantlyThe exchange of values ​​happens with delays
All data on counteragents is stored on the blockchain, and the person him/herself establishes which information can be publicly availableOne can get information on counteragents by providing statements and certificates from state authorities
The smart contract can be concluded from anywhere in the world without the in-person presenceThe contract is signed only in the context of a personal meeting of two parties or their authorized representatives
The security of the transaction is guaranteed There are no guarantees
When concluding a contract, all terms are observed unconditionallyTerms can be changed and rearranged
The smart contract is easy enough to understand in terms of all possibilities and transaction termsWhen drawing up the average contract, the assistance of lawyers is necessary

Smart contract audit company services are quite similar to a regular code audit, which is used to test code in order to distinguish technical and security problems before deployment. Smart-contract developers together with blockchain advisor are responsible for the safety of the products they offer their customers.

The value of smart contractsHow to Prepare a Smart Contract for Audit

Preparation of comprehensive specifications is certainly a useful recommendation, as it provides a clear idea of the smart contract, its utilization, and its principles of operation. This type of documentation is essential for avoiding insecurities.

Despite the fact that the presence of this document plays an important role, many blockchain development companies do not develop it. However, experienced engineers say that a set of specifications helps them clarify all complicated issues and describe the operation of each feature of the smart contract, thereby increasing the chances for the project’s success.

When preparing specifications, a smart contract development company should provide insights into the expected behavior of the smart contract: what should occur, and what should not. For this, it is worth building diagrams to come up with possible alternatives and finding existing inaccuracies in the smart contract. Commenting on the complicated sections of the smart contract will also help to clarify your intentions.

To avoid failures, record all data of the solidity smart contract development and deployment process. Well-prepared documentation that describes the order of operations in a smart contract (the type of compiler used and the construction parameters for the initialization of each contract) will help avoid unnecessary problems, especially for a DeFi development company.

A qualitatively-written smart contract greatly simplifies and automates the work of the smart contract audit company you will hire. Also, do not forget to delete unused and unnecessary files, code snippets, and even some contracts. This will reduce the volume of clutter and simplify the auditor’s work.

It is recommended to use Solidity Coverage to audit smart contracts if we are talking about the Ethereum blockchain development company. This helps to evaluate test coverage and identify each piece of code that hasn’t yet been tested, and analyze it much more deeply.

In any case, coverage can fix several security bugs, but you have to provide a professional smart contract from the very beginning.

Blockchain developers to improve the efficiency of smart contracts facilitate their reading and evaluation.

When testing a smart contract, static analysis helps to reveal code vulnerabilities. Use tools like Oyente, Manticore, or Solgraph to analyze smart-contract code and detect common security issues.

Despite the fact that smart contract development is quite widespread and simple, contracts can still contain bugs; therefore, one should always be ready for failure. That’s why you need to protect yourself by creating an effective update plan for discovering the code bugs if there are any. The best option would be to hire a smart contract audit company to make sure everything is handled professionally.

Smart-Contract Dangers: Catch the Signal to Rescue Your Project

If we are talking about the application of smart contracts (dApps development services, for instance) in order to attract investments, founders need to understand the necessity of project due diligence, particularly technical audits of smart contracts. Making your smart-contract code bulletproof is the key to building business credibility in the blockchain development ecosystem.

According to a report generated in 2018 by researchers from Singapore and the U.K., approximately 34,200 out of 970,898 smart contracts (worth over $4 million) are vulnerable to technical bugs.

Without multi-layered evaluation of project feasibility (particularly verification of technical aspects) and smart contract audit company that provides further identification and mitigation of possible risks, every smart contract you create and deploy could be an easy target for hackers. In order to remain confident of the validity of your code and maintain assurances of protection from errors and omissions, make sure your smart contract is checked by the best smart contract audit company that will follow coding standards and reveal spelling errors. 

Smart-Contract Audit Phases

The key tasks of a smart contract audit company include:

  1. Finding common errors such as stack, compilation, and reentry difficulties
  2. Discovering errors of the host platform
  3. Learning current and possible security issues

When auditing smart contracts, a blockchain development company can follow either manual or automatic methods of code analysis.

The manual approach has many benefits. If a project has a large and professional development team, a manual approach to outline improvements related to efficiency, logic, and optimization of the smart contract is a perfect choice.

Team members of a smart contract audit company must examine every piece of code, as the safety of the smart contract is the most important section to pay attention to in order to provide successful and lasting functioning of a blockchain development company.

In contrast to a manual audit of the smart contract, the automatic method is less time-consuming and allows testing for vulnerabilities much more quickly.

Anyone can benefit from smart-contract audits: developers, owners of ICO startups, DeFi development company, and owners of the decentralized applications.

The Importance of the Smart-Contract Audit

Since the spread of popularity of token offerings and other related blockchain projects, smart contract audits has become one of the most in-demand services in the blockchain development sphere. And it’s no wonder.

Smart contract security plays a significant role in the success of the whole project, as it must be a priority in order to prevent any possible risks after code implementation.

A smart contract audit is an important stage for any blockchain development agency, as investors and owners trust their cryptocurrency and/or tokens. It can help:

  • give more confidence to investors that the contract takes into account and protects their interests
  • provide an additional guarantee that the smart contract code does not contain mistakes for a hacker to steal funds or block them. Additionally, some exchanges can request an audit before adding a token to their lists.
  • receive higher ratings on IEO trackers and listings

Some problems can cause bugs in the smart contract code, which is a bad situation, as nothing can be fixed anymore. Because of the irreversible nature of smart contracts, money can be lost on the blockchain, and there may not be any possibility of getting it back.

As a result, even a tiny vulnerability or misstep can be decisive. That’s why serious project developers prefer hiring a professional smart contract audit company to have their smart contracts tested properly. Developers know that the elimination of smart contract problems can be really costly, so an audit shouldn’t be skipped, as it is the best way to save time and money.

Smart contracts must be carefully planned, taking into account all logical permutations and possible exceptions. If someone changes the order of the code (as in the case of a DAO attack) or forgets to initialize something (as in the case of Parity Freeze), he or she can perpetuate a catastrophe on the immutable blockchain.

The blockchain is still developing, so many new coin launch platforms have appeared, but the security of code is still an eternal issue in programming that will always be relevant.

A smart contract audit is a prerequisite for any project to be considered safe and be suitable for trading on exchanges.

Remember, customers are trusting you with a lot of their money, so you are responsible for their savings. If someone hacks the network, all of their money will be lost. It is vital to reveal and warn about bugs and inefficiency problems in smart contracts. Protect your investors by hiring experts in the blockchain development field. They must be experienced in both smart-contract programming and security.

Conclusion

Basically, lack of experience and the absence of deliberate and rigorously-thought-out project preparation and lack of technical knowledge are the reasons startups lack credibility. It is crucial to partner with expert companies and top-notch teams who are notable in the market and have successful projects behind them.

The Applicature technical team conducts in-depth analysis and security testing of smart contracts as well as business logic reviews for smart contracts. To remain in line with blockchain development principles, Applicature developers conduct automated and manual audits of code according to the latest standards.

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