CodeHawks is a leading competitive smart contract audit marketplace powered by Cyfrin. CodeHawks works to protect DeFi, Protocols, their users, and funds from smart contract exploits through private and public smart contract security auditing competitions, joined by industry-leading auditors world-wide.
Digital value exchange enabled by decentralized finance and smart contracts requires outstanding security and best practices to reach mainstream adoption.
Over $250B is locked in the DeFi ecosystem, and in the past six months alone, over $1B has been lost in more than 100 DeFi exploits.
Last year, 6% of the Total Value Locked (TVL) in DeFi was stolen, resulting in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in users and protocols funds and, inherently, faith in the entire ecosystem.
Furthermore, finding, hiring, and working with expert and reliable auditors has been extremely rudimental until now. Protocols were forced to perform word-of-mouth research, with little to no possibility of ensuring the quality of their audits.
CodeHawks solves this by bridging together top-notch Blockchain security experts and Protocols in an eco-system built to create security in web3.
CodeHawks, powered by Cyfrin, brings together top-notch global auditors and a community of thousands of security researchers to ensure the highest security standards when securing your codebases.
| Feature/Attribute | CodeHawks | Competitors |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Low platform fees | Higher platform fees |
| Process Transparency | Full Transparency Throughout | Sometimes Opaque |
| Types of Audits Offered | Competitive & Private | Typically One Type |
| Referral Program | Generous 15% Referral Fee | Usually Lower or No Referral Program |
| Audit Speed | Quick Turnaround | Often Slower |
| Post-Audit Support | Long-term Code Safeguarding | Typically Limited to Initial Audit |
| Additional Services | Education, long term support | Often Limited to Auditing |
| Customer Support | 24/7 Dedicated Support | Limited Support Hours |
There are three core components in every CodeHawks smart contract auditing competition:
- Sponsors (protocols): Organizations or entities that implement smart contracts.
- Judges: World-leading experts who oversee the audit process and ensure its integrity.
- Hawks (auditors): Professionals who conduct the actual audit of the smart contracts
Protocols approach Cyfrin CodeHawks with their audit requirements. They have the flexibility to choose between:
- Public Competitive Audits: A dynamic audit process where multiple auditors compete to identify vulnerabilities.
- Private Competitive Audits: A more traditional approach where a selected auditor or team reviews the smart contract.
Learn more about all the Cyfrin security solutions and its ecosystem.
The Hawks, our Auditors, lie at the heart of the CodeHawks ecosystem.
They:
- Engage in competitive audits, showcasing their expertise.
- Get paid for their findings.
- Build a network to find private auditing opportunities.
- Are sometimes eligible to become community judges.
If you're interested in becoming a Hawk on CodeHawks, start by visiting our Quickstart guide
Judges are the team, community, and protocol members dedicated to reviewing Hawks submissions, deduplicating, validating, testing, and ensuring the highest quality standards when selecting them.
They are responsible for ensuring our top-notch security reports by revising, testing, and verifying thousands of security researchers' submissions every year.
To learn more about our judging process or evaluation criteria - visit the dedicated sections.