CertiK is a blockchain security pioneer, using cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology to safeguard and monitor blockchain protocols and smart contracts. CertiK was founded in 2018 by Yale and Columbia University professors to secure the Web 3. CertiK brings cutting-edge technologies from academia to the enterprise, allowing mission-critical programs to scale safely and correctly.

What is Certik?

CertiK is a decentralized innovative contract platform that supports Dapps. It also promotes inter-chain communication and operates on the Certik Chain. The system is optimized for highly specialized use cases. The protocol implements a PoS variant known as delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS). It makes use of the Cosmos software development kit (SDK). The CertiK Foundation has taken the initiative to restore trust in distributed platforms by utilizing cutting-edge security technologies and approaches. CertiK has reached a significant milestone in providing proven trust on a decentralized network. Apart from security, the network considers performance and token economics.

CertiK intends to provide a secure platform for developing blockchain infrastructure and decentralized applications. Its ecosystem includes security layers below the blockchain level, such as the DeepSEA compiler, CertiK Virtual Machine (CVM), and CertiKOS. CertiK advocates a complete security approach, including smart contract audits, formal verification, penetration testing, and advanced security monitoring tools. The company is also actively involved in research and development, helping improve blockchain security for big companies such as Apple, Samsung, and Sui.

Background of Certik

CertiK was developed in 2018 by computer science professors at Yale and Columbia Universities. Co-founder Professor Ronghui Gu received the VMware Systems Research Award in 2022 and serves on the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s International Technology Advisory Panel. CertiK’s leadership team includes Ronghui Gu (CEO), a Columbia Ph.D. in blockchain security; Xuemin (Sherman) Shen (Chief Scientist), a Tsinghua professor in network security; Wei Li (CPO), who oversees product development; and Andy Li (COO), who manages operations and global expansion. They prioritize strengthening blockchain security through audits and real-time monitoring.

CertiK has worked with over 4,000 enterprise clients, secured over $360 billion in digital assets, and discovered over 60,000 vulnerabilities in blockchain technology. The company’s clients include Aave, Polygon, BNB Chain, Aptos, and WEMIX. CertiK has received funding from several major investors, including Binance Labs, Sequoia Capital, IDG Capital, Shunwei Capital, Greenfield One, Matrix Partners, Blockchain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Tiger Global Management. These contributors assist CertiK’s objective to improve blockchain security through smart contract audits, formal verification, and real-time monitoring. CertiK’s investors have played an essential role in the company’s growth, establishing it as a leading provider of blockchain security solutions, with a particular emphasis on safeguarding decentralized apps and smart contracts throughout the blockchain ecosystem.

Features of Certik

CertiK is a cybersecurity startup that specializes in blockchain and smart contract security. It includes a variety of capabilities to help protect blockchain projects, decentralized apps (dApps), and smart contracts. Here are some of the main characteristics of CertiK:

• Smart Contract Audits: CertiK conducts automatic and manual audits of smart contracts to discover vulnerabilities and flaws. This helps ensure the contracts’ security before they are deployed on the blockchain.
• Security Scanning and Analysis: CertiK employs modern technologies and AI-driven approaches to complete security scans on smart contracts, blockchains, and decentralized applications. It detects potential vulnerabilities such as reentrancy attacks, overflow mistakes, and access control concerns.
• Skynet Monitoring: CertiK’s real-time monitoring technology constantly monitors the security of smart contracts and blockchain protocols. It generates alerts and updates about prospective threats and attacks.
• Formal Verification: CertiK provides formal verification, a mathematical method for showing that code works as predicted. This can be used to demonstrate the code’s correctness and safety in detail.
• Security Score and Certification: Based on the audit results, CertiK assigns a security score to each project or contract. This score is accessible to users and investors, helping to foster trust in the project’s security. CertiK accreditation demonstrates a project’s dedication to security.

Certik Products

CertiK provides numerous services related to blockchain audit reports and security. Some examples are security auditing, Skynet, KYC, penetration testing, bug bounty, SkyTrace, and formal verification. These tools and technologies are designed to protect a decentralized platform from attacks caused by smart contract vulnerabilities. CertiK offers a variety of additional tools to assist projects and investors in taking an informed and comprehensive approach to security and due diligence.

Web 3 Security Audit

Smart Contract Audit

A smart contract audit is an expert study of each line of code in a smart contract to identify issues and give fixes. This is a critical procedure that guarantees a blockchain project is as secure as feasible. While blockchain projects are open-source, most users lack the necessary expertise to properly evaluate the smart contract code. Expert auditors assist users in making informed decisions by detecting, clarifying, and addressing possible risks. Certik uses advanced methods such as formal verification to take the auditing process one step further by establishing mathematical guarantees regarding smart contract behavior. They use expert manual evaluation of smart contract code, as well as powerful AI and mathematical algorithms, to ensure that contracts function properly.

Certik’s Smart Contract Audit provides a full security audit of users’ smart contracts and blockchain code, identifying flaws and recommending solutions. Certik has an industry-leading audit methodology and tooling, which includes a review of users’ code logic using a mathematical approach to ensure their software functions as intended. Certik has users’ code reviewed by CertiK’s team of seasoned security experts, who have audited 1000s of projects, provide actionable insights, and users receive rich reporting, covering findings and recommendations on how to remediate vulnerabilities, provide the most coverage on languages and ecosystems, and offer faster onboarding options, depending on project code size.

How Do Smart Contract Audits Work?

Every smart contract audit includes a thorough manual assessment by our seasoned security professionals. Automated AI-powered reviews give an extra layer of security. Formal verification is an optional step that validates smart contract behavior about bespoke function specifications. This allows developers to have a comprehensive understanding of their platform’s capabilities.

Formal verification is the mathematical proof of a smart contract or blockchain protocol’s functionality. It guarantees that it works as intended while leaving no vulnerabilities undiscovered. CertiK’s formal verification approach identifies more vulnerabilities than human analysis alone.

L1 Chain Audit

An L1 chain audit conducts a full security review of a Layer 1 blockchain, identifying flaws and recommending solutions. The L1 chain auditing process combines expert manual evaluation of smart contract code with advanced AI and mathematical techniques to ensure that blockchain protocols perform as expected. Every audit includes a thorough manual assessment by our seasoned security professionals. Formal verification validates L1 chain code behavior about custom function specifications, allowing developers to comprehensively understand their platform’s capabilities. The process of auditing an L1 is the same as auditing a Smart Contract. The five-step method goes as follows:

Skynet

Skynet provides a wealth of data-driven insights for Web3 projects and communities. End-to-end security tools work along with on-chain and off-chain data to create a comprehensive Web3 security analysis platform. Skynet’s Web3 security analysis tools monitor and visualize both on-chain and off-chain data. CertiK’s skilled security researchers developed industry-leading technology that is used on the platform. Skynet actively monitors both on-chain and off-chain security parameters, recognizing dangers and sending timely alarms. Skynet offers a website with non-downloadable software for security research of smart contracts and blockchain projects. Skynet allows users to confidently traverse the Web3 world, thanks to Skynet’s comprehensive, data-driven insights that will enable users to discover intriguing new projects, complete due diligence with precision, and stay up to date on all current developments in the space.

Users can delve deeper into Skynet Leaderboards, which list and rank projects based on a multitude of on- and off-chain data. Users can also rate and compare projects based on Code Security, Fundamental Health, Operational Resilience, Community Trust, Market Stability, and Governance Strength. CertiK’s due diligence products include the Exchange Audit, Smart Money Wizard, and Skynet Alerts.

CertiK Skynet Score

CertiK’s Skynet Score is a real-time assessment system that examines the security of Web3 projects, exchanges, and wallets in an unbiased and objective manner. CertiK’s security scoring system serves as your basis in the Web3 world. We provide comprehensive coverage of Web3 projects, including those listed on CoinMarketCap and significant exchanges. The methodology uses a weighted average to complete a full security assessment. Importantly, our assessment is independent and unaffected by project relationships. In addition to projects, CertiK has expanded our Skynet Score to include cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets, acknowledging their critical role in the crypto ecosystem.

What is Certik Chain?

CertiK Chain is a blockchain protocol that powers the CertiK ecosystem. It is very secure and supports cross-chain interoperability. The platform includes essential components such as a security oracle and a CertiKShield pool to carry out its function successfully.

CertiK Security Oracle

The platform’s security Oracle compresses audit reports and makes them available on-chain. Audit reports contain information about the reliability of smart contracts. However, the data used to make decisions in smart contracts can jeopardize their dependability. These reports exist outside blockchain platforms, posing a security risk and driving CertiK to put them on-chain via their security oracle. As a result, the network can successfully check the security of a smart contract. This component assigns grades based on a smart contract’s most recent audit report. The scores provide an overview of the contract’s code reliability. The security oracle can track and report unaudited smart contracts and grade them. A dispersed security team handles such reports. Using the CertiK Oracle Combinator, the security team’s results are collected into a single score that is available online. And, of course, the security staff is compensated. Fortunately, this functionality is critical in a decentralized finance (DeFi) environment, where unaudited smart contracts are causing mayhem. For example, by implementing CertiK’s security oracle, the obligation for an audit is transferred from the contract creator to the contract users.

CertiKShield Pool

The CertiKShield pool is a unique component designed to mitigate the hazards associated with the private nature of (most) cryptocurrencies. This could include losses from both avoidable and unavoidable events, such as house fires. The shield functions by offering a variable pool of CTK tokens. Because the token employs on-chain governance mechanisms, it can be utilized to offset losses resulting from inaccessibility and/or theft. In other words, this serves as an insurance platform. However, its decentralized design allows it to collect feedback from all parties before deciding on a claim. The CertiKShield Pool consists of collateral suppliers and shield purchasers. Collateral providers receive staking incentives, while shield customers pay for requested protection.

Certik Chain Architecture and Technology

The primary components of the CertiK Chain are integrated into an architecture that can establish proven trust. In addition to the security oracle and shield pool, the network’s backbone includes a virtual machine and DeepSEA.

DeepSEA

CertiK developed DeepSEA, a formally certified compiler for smart contracts. It is considered a sophisticated solution in the field of Web3 formal verification. It seeks to solve two major issues: possible compiler faults, which could lead to security flaws in properly written smart contracts, and verification toolchain inaccuracies, which could invalidate formal verification assurances. DeepSEA translates contract source code written in high-level languages (such as Solidity, Rust, and Vyper) into executable bytecode for blockchain platforms (EVM, WebAssembly, etc.). The project arose from a study on improving the execution environment, emphasizing the compiler component. DeepSEA is written in Coq’s built-in programming language (Gallina) and separated into several granular phases to improve verification performance.

DeepSEA supports two target types: EVM bytecode and Ethereum-flavored WebAssembly (eWASM). It can build the DeepSEA surface language and function as a backend for various smart contract programming languages. Verifying compiler correctness entails defining programming languages for input and output and their semantics, inventing and defining a’match_states’ relationship between program states in the input and output languages, and demonstrating that compiled program states correspond to the original program’s states. DeepSEA also combines compilation and formal verification. This integration allows for high-level program verification while assuring that the confirmed security attributes match the produced bytecode. CertiK’s vision for DeepSEA as technology advances is for compilers and verification tools to operate on a single core language with a formally validated compiler backend.

CertiK Virtual Machines (CVM)

The CVM successfully avoids errors that may occur while transforming smart contract code from human-readable language to machine language. These flaws may be unknown to contract developers, but they offer a significant security risk. As a security-first decentralized platform, the CVM is based on the output of DeepSEA, a certified compiler. The compiler produces bytecode and mathematical proofs. The proofs can isolate smart contract codes that do not meet security requirements.

Certik is well-known for offering various blockchain security services, such as smart contract audits, on-chain analysis, and security evaluations for decentralized applications (dApps and protocols). Despite its dominant position, Certik has encountered criticism, with some users claiming that Certik’s assessments fail to detect more nuanced or less evident flaws, especially in complicated codebases. For example, several platforms that obtained a Certik “clean” assessment were later compromised.

Certik Audit vs. Competitors

Quantstamp

Quantstamp is another prominent participant in blockchain auditing, distinguished by its complete approach to smart contract security. It has audited well-known projects, including MakerDAO, Tezos, and Ethereum-based protocols. Like Certik, Quantstamp blends automated tools with professional hand evaluations. However, they stress a more thorough manual review procedure for customized or sophisticated methods. Quantstamp frequently uses formal verification techniques in audits, which are mathematical approaches to establishing the accuracy of a contract. This is more thorough than standard code analysis and can better protect against specific defects.

OpenZeppelin

OpenZeppelin is a well-known blockchain company, particularly for its safe, smart contract development platform. They also provide auditing services through their team of smart contract security specialists. OpenZeppelin delivers a complete framework for developing safe smart contracts, libraries, and tools often used in the Ethereum ecosystem. OpenZeppelin audits are manual, with blockchain security specialists combing through code line by line. As a strong supporter of open-source development, OpenZeppelin’s auditors are frequently aware of common vulnerabilities and the solutions for mitigating them.

MythX

MythX is a blockchain security business focusing on automated smart contract security research. They offer free and commercial services, including static analysis of smart contracts. MythX’s technology provides automated smart contract analysis, which uses a variety of analysis engines to uncover flaws. MythX works nicely with various blockchain development environments, including Truffle and Remix, making it easier for developers to test their contracts. MythX provides continuing monitoring for deployed contracts, which aids in detecting vulnerabilities that may arise after distribution.

Certik has established itself as a significant auditing business. However, its dependence on automated technologies and the debate over the accuracy of its audits have prompted concerns. For those seeking additional details in manual review or formal verification, rivals such as Quantstamp and OpenZeppelin may provide superior services at a higher cost. MythX, on the other hand, is a less expensive solution that produces faster findings but lacks the completeness of human-driven audits.

What is Certik Token ($CTK)?

CertiK (CTK) is the native token of the CertiK chain, a proof-of-stake network launched in 2019.

CertiK Chain is a smart contract platform prioritizing security while enabling decentralized applications and non-fungible coins. The network employs the fundamental verification platform and supports cross-chain transactions.

CTK, the chain’s native coin, is the utility token for platform transactions. It also ensures the network is decentralized, as users vote on it. Thus, CTK holders have a say in the network’s development. Aside from being used in the CertiK protocol, CTK is an essential component of the CertiK Chain. Here, the token is utilized to pay transaction fees. In exchange, the fees reward staking nodes on the blockchain. Additionally, the coin compensates users who delegate their CTK holdings to validator nodes.

The token’s initial issuance occurred through two private sales, which sold 38 million CTK tokens valued at $39,430,000. Aside from the first and second private sales (29.0% and 9.0%, respectively), the token distribution allotted 1.5% of its total supply to Binance Launchpool, 10.0% to the CertiK team, 25% to the CertiK Foundation, 17.5% to the community pool, and 8.0% to the CertiKShield pool.

Conclusion

CertiK offers much-needed peace of mind by providing a decentralized contract audit that eliminates the need for DeFi users to rely entirely on team-provided reports, which are sometimes anonymous. From the security oracle to the reimbursement pools to DeepSEA, the network is architecturally designed to accomplish a security-first strategy with proven confidence.