Convergence audit competition rewards up to $20K in USDC

6 min readApr 30, 2024

Starting May 1st, 2024, at 15:00 GMT to May 15, 2024, at 15:00 GMT

We invite all white hat hackers to join the hunt on Convergence audit competition.

All experience levels are welcome; whether you are a seasoned security veteran or an amateur, show us what you got! Prizes will be given based on the severity level of each vulnerability found.

About the Competition

Starting May 1st, a new vault will open in the Hats dApp — “Convergence”.
Participants can check the contracts in scope and start searching for bugs.

Convergence Finance presents a decentralised finance protocol firmly rooted in the governance accumulation narrative, seamlessly integrated into the Curve ecosystem. The platform exhibits a Convex-like behaviour, implementing an aggregation and boosting protocol model inspired by the mechanics of Curve and Olympus. Notable elements, such as gauges, veTKN, and innovative homemade bonds, contribute to the platform’s distinctive framework. Notably, the protocol introduces a pioneering governance design called the “Govern” mechanism, strategically partitioning governance and yield considerations at the locking design level. This meticulous approach characterises Convergence Finance as a DeFi protocol that artfully blends well-established concepts with cutting-edge innovations, delivering a comprehensive and sophisticated decentralised finance experience.

The competition code language is Solidity and the SLOC estimation for this competition is ~ 1200 SLOC.

[Arbitrum]
Example: To reduce transaction costs, we’re shifting our audits vault to Layer 2 networks. Specifically, this competition is hosted on Arbitrum for more efficient fee management.

Stay up-to-date with the competition, chat with the team, and get your questions answered by joining the dedicated Discord channel on the Hats server.

All audit reports will be published in our Discord on the day of the competition. Don’t miss the latest updates and insights — join now and be the first to know!

Audit competition rewards

Deposited Amount: The deposited amount is ~$25K in USDC, making the available prize pool ~$20K in USDC.
Service Fee: All rewards mentioned in this article and on the Hats dApp UI have already deducted a 20% Hats service fee.
Severities: Low, Medium, High

Rewards and calculation

For our audit competition, the entire prize pool is up for grabs across all severity levels. Each severity level has a designated point value and a maximum payout cap.

Maximum Reward Caps per Submission:

Low Severity: 500 USDC (equals 1 point)
Medium Severity: 4000 USDC (equals 8 points)
High Severity: 8000 USDC (equals 16 points)

*For simplicity, there is a relation between the points and the cap. If the cap is 500 USDC, it equals the allocation of 2.5% from the max reward per valid submission.

Points are consistently awarded within the same severity level unless the committee decides to adjust this. For instance, both the first and second low-severity findings will earn 1 point each. This standard applies to medium and high severities as well.

Calculating the Winner’s Reward:

The formula for a winner’s reward is as follows:

Point Value = Prize Pool / Total Points*

*Awarded for the entire competition

Examples for Clarity:

Example #1:

163 Low Severity: 163 points
1 Medium Severity: 8 points
1 High Severity: 16 points

Total points: 187

In this scenario:

Value of 1 Point = 20,000 USDC/187 Total points = ~107 USDC
The rewards for this example will be as follows:
Low (163 points): $107 each ($17,433 in total)
Medium (8 points): $856 each ($856 in total).
High (16 points): $1,712 each ($1,712 in total).

Example #2

10 Low Severity: 10 points
2 Medium: 16 points

Total points: 26

In this scenario:

Value of 1 Point = 20,000 USDC/26 Total points = ~769 USDC
The value of 1 point exceeds the max value per point (500 USDC), so 1 point will be equal to 500 USDC.
The rewards for this example will be as follows:
Low (10 points): $500 each ($5,000 in total)
Medium (16 points): $4,000 each ($8,000 in total)

Severities

High Severity

Issues that will qualify for this bracket will be assigned 16 points.

High-severity vulnerability description:

For a submission to be considered a HIGH-risk vulnerability, issues must:

Direct theft of any user funds, whether at rest or in motion
Long-term freezing of user funds
Theft or long-term freezing of unclaimed yield or other assets
Protocol insolvency

Medium Severity

Issues that will qualify for this bracket will be assigned 8 points.

Medium severity vulnerability description:

Issues that lead to an economic loss but do not lead to direct loss of on-chain assets. Examples are:

Gas griefing attacks (make users overpay for gas)
Attacks that make essential functionality of the contracts temporarily unusable or inaccessible
Short-term freezing of user funds

Low severity

Issues that will be qualified for this bracket will be assigned with 1 point.

Low severity vulnerability description:

Issues where the behaviour of the contracts differs from the intended behaviour (as described in the docs and by common sense), but no funds are at risk.

Limitations

Reporters will not receive a bounty for any known issue, such as:

Issues mentioned in any previous audit reports
Vulnerabilities that were already made public (either by HATs or by a third party)
“Centralization risks” that are known and/or explicitly coded into the protocol (e.g. an administrator can upgrade crucial contracts and steal all funds)
Attacks that require access to leaked private keys or trusted addresses
Issues/contracts mentioned in the out-of-scope section

Submission Guidelines — High/Medium/Low severities:

General Information:

The Hats team will create a new repository called “Convergence audit competition” under the Hats.finance organisation on GitHub. The repository will be kept private until the competition starts. Hats bot will fork it on the first submission. To participate, security researchers must submit their findings on-chain, and an automatic GitHub issue will be generated in the forked repository.
How it Works: Video Explanation

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Submissions should be made using our Dapp.
You can submit one on-chain submission mentioning all issues found on the repo.
All new submissions will be created on Hats forked repo on Hats: Hats GitHub

Report Format:

Please send a plain ASCII description in the following format:
[TITLE]: A short description of the issue.
SEVERITY: Either High, Medium, or Low (as per the rules).
Submission should contain at least one test demonstrating the problem and, if possible, a possible fix.

Report Template:

Description: Describe the context and the effect of the vulnerability.
Attack scenario: Describe how the vulnerability can be exploited.

Attachment:

Proof of Concept (PoC) File: Provide a file containing a proof of concept (PoC) that demonstrates the vulnerability.
Revised Code File (Optional): If possible, provide a second file containing the revised code that offers a potential fix for the vulnerability. This file should include:
Comment with a clear explanation of the proposed fix.
The revised code with suggested changes.
Add any additional comments or explanations clarifying how the fix addresses the vulnerability.
Recommendation: Describe a patch or potential fix for the vulnerability.

Due to the nature of the audit competition mechanism, the report will not be encrypted.

Evaluation:

The first participant to submit an issue following guidelines gets a bounty for that issue (issues already received or out of scope will not receive a reward).
The competition starts on May 1st at 15:00 GMT and ends on May 15th at 15:00 GMT.
Issues that we are aware of (as witnessed by any open issues in the repository) will not be eligible for the bug bounty.

Compensation and Impact

A prize pool of ~$20K USDC and NFT rewards from our hacker collection will be distributed among security researchers who submit eligible vulnerability disclosures.

Compensation payment timeline:

Ten days after the competition ends, we will announce a winner list.
Alongside the winner announcement post, submitters can send disputes to the committee team and request clarification. They can also involve the Hats security team in the process. The goal is to facilitate honest and professional debate regarding disputed submissions.
Between 7–14 days after the announcement, we will publish a split contract where the winners can claim their rewards.
HATS Service Fee: A 20% deduction from the payout will always be allocated as the service fee.

Security researchers play a crucial role in fostering trust and confidence in Web3 technologies, paving the way for mass adoption. By participating in this competition, security researchers can gain recognition for their work, raise their profile, and make valuable connections in the Web3 security ecosystem. Ultimately, they can contribute to creating a more secure and equitable community.

Join Convergence Audit Competition today and participate in the movement to secure the future of Web3 and decentralised finance. Check the Hats Finance dApp for more information and in-scope contracts.

Stay tuned and check Hats dApp:https://app.hats.finance/audit-competitions