Outsmarting Security Risks: How Hats Finance Helps You Gain Competitive Advantage

HatsFinance
6 min readAug 28, 2024

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As projects in the Web3 and Blockchain space advance, we witness a future brimming with potential and greater effectiveness. However, a crucial question remains: Are we truly ready to rely on platforms that still depend on traditional security measures?

Traditional security auditing has long been the bedrock of safety in finance and technology, but the rapidly evolving DeFi, Web3, and Blockchain landscapes are revealing its limitations.

While technology evolves every day, so do the risks associated with it. Traditional auditors often need help to keep pace with hackers and cybercriminals’ increasingly sophisticated tactics, leaving projects and stakeholders vulnerable.

The shortcomings of these conventional methods are becoming more apparent. If addressed, they could jeopardize the entire DeFi and Blockchain ecosystem.

Drawbacks of Traditional Auditing

Given their established presence in the industry, traditional audits have long been seen as the go-to solution for securing Web3 and Blockchain projects. Initially, these audits instilled a strong sense of security and trust, ensuring that projects were effectively vetted.

However, as the crypto market began to surge, auditing often became more of a formality than a rigorous security measure. Many projects rode the wave of hype despite needing to prepare to protect their assets and the investments of their stakeholders.

Today, traditional audits are increasingly viewed as a centralized process that may not fully align with the decentralized nature of crypto projects. No matter how innovative your solutions are, if your security measures don’t keep pace with current threats, all your efforts could be in vain.

To understand the gravity of this issue, let’s explore how traditional audits operate and the challenges they face in today’s Web3 and Blockchain industry.

Upfront Fees: Paying Before You Play

Traditional auditing firms typically require projects to pay hefty fees upfront, regardless of the outcome. This can be a significant burden, especially for smaller projects or startups. You essentially pay for a service before knowing if it will provide value, which means there’s a risk of spending large sums without receiving substantial security improvements.

One-Time Assessment

In many cases, traditional audits are a one-time assessment. Once the audit is complete, the firm provides a report detailing any vulnerabilities or issues. However, as new updates or changes are made to the project, these initial findings can quickly become outdated. Continuous monitoring is rarely part of the package, leaving projects vulnerable after the audit.

Incentive Misalignment

Traditional auditing firms are paid regardless of whether they find significant vulnerabilities. This means that auditors might not be financially incentivized to find and fix the most critical issues. Their incentives may or may not align with the platform’s interests. This misalignment can lead to surface-level audits that miss more profound, complex vulnerabilities.

Delayed Security Implementation

Traditional audits often involve a lengthy and rigid process that can take weeks or months to complete. This means that critical vulnerabilities might remain undiscovered for weeks or months. This delay can be catastrophic in the rapidly evolving DeFi space, as projects must respond to real-time threats to protect their users and assets by identifying and addressing vulnerabilities swiftly.

Limited Transparency

Traditional audits often lack transparency, with the auditing process and decision-making hidden from view. This can create a trust gap between the auditors, the project team, and the project community, who may not fully understand or trust the audit’s findings.

Real-World Example: The Downfall of Traditional Auditing

Take the case of Poly Network, a DeFi platform that suffered a massive $600 million hack in 2021. Despite having undergone traditional audits, critical vulnerabilities were overlooked, leading to one of the most significant DeFi breaches in history. This incident highlighted the limitations of traditional auditing methods, especially in a space where new threats emerge constantly and need immediate attention.

Similarly, Cream Finance was hacked multiple times in 2021, resulting in losses exceeding $130 million. Despite being audited, the platform fell victim to complex flash loan attacks, a type of vulnerability that traditional audits often struggle to anticipate and address due to their one-time, static nature.

Rethinking DeFi Security with Hats Finance

In the high-stakes industry, security isn’t just important — it is everything. Traditional auditing firms often fall short, plagued by high costs, slow processes, and a lack of transparency. Despite rigorous audits, multiple projects have faced devastating breaches, raising a critical question: Is the old way of securing DeFi enough?

Hats Finance DeSec is rewriting the rules of security. With a fresh, results-driven approach, it offers a more effective solution that’s more aligned with the fast-paced nature of the DeFi world. Let’s learn how!

Pay Only for Success: The Cost-Effective Edge

Why pay for a security audit if it doesn’t deliver? With Hats Finance, you don’t have to. Their pay-for-results model ensures you’re only billed when real vulnerabilities are found and fixed. It’s like only paying a chef when your meal is perfectly cooked — efficient, fair, and budget-friendly.

Non-Custodial Security with Lower Fees

Trust is everything in DeFi, and Hats Finance understands this. Adopting a non-custodial model ensures your assets remain controlled, reducing risks and fees. Think of it as a vault that’s always in sight, without the hidden charges.

Cutting Through the Noise: Smart Spam Filtering

In a world full of noise, quality is key. Hats Finance’s on-chain submission system filters out spam and irrelevant reports, ensuring only the most valuable insights reach your project. It’s like having a personal assistant who only brings the best ideas.

Right incentives for auditors: Transparent and Speedy Rewards

Speed and transparency are crucial in DeFi, and Hats Finance delivers on both. With rapid and clear reward distribution, the platform ensures that ethical hackers are motivated and projects are secure — all while keeping everything above board. Imagine a world where trust isn’t just a word but a guarantee.

Fast-Track Your Security in Just Two Weeks

Why wait months for a security audit when you can get results in two weeks? Hats Finance accelerates the process, giving you detailed reports, fixes, and reviews in record time. It’s like having a pit crew for your DeFi project, getting you back on track before you know it.

Keeping It Smooth: Reputation System Minimizes Disputes

Disputes can easily disrupt even the best intentions, but Hats Finance’s reputation system is designed to keep the process seamless. Submission transparency minimizes potential conflicts in public or private competition models. In public models, submissions are available to sponsors, judges, and the entire ecosystem, while in private competitions, only approved auditors can view them. This level of visibility ensures accountability, as no one can avoid acting in good faith or providing evidence to back their submissions.

Auditors can also review invalid labels to ensure that sponsors/ judges aren’t altering code incorrectly flagged as invalid. Ultimately, this system resolves most issues before they escalate into full disputes, keeping the competition fair and transparent.

A Unified, Community-Driven Approach to Protecting Blockchain Projects

Hats Finance is redefining security with its innovative approach beyond traditional audits. At the core of its offering is DeSec (Decentralized Security), a system that leverages the community’s collective expertise to identify and fix vulnerabilities. Instead of relying on isolated audits, Hats Finance taps into a global network of security researchers and developers, creating a more resilient and responsive security framework.

The community-based model strengthens individual projects and contributes to the overall health of the DeFi space.

Hats Finance’s unified approach makes security accessible to everyone, regardless of project size. Providing scalable tools and resources ensures that even smaller projects can implement top-tier security measures without breaking the bank. This inclusivity is critical to building a safer, more robust blockchain environment.

In short, Hats Finance isn’t just fixing problems — it’s fostering a security culture that’s collaborative, proactive, and accessible to all. Through DeSec, community engagement, and a unified strategy, Hats Finance is making security a sustainable and integral part of every project in the Web3 and Blockchain world.

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HatsFinance

Hats.Finance a decentralized smart bug bounty marketplace. Permissionless, scalable, and open bug bounty protocol that allows anyone to provide liquidity.