CertiK is a leading blockchain and smart contract security assurance provider founded by computer scientists from Yale and Columbia University. Recently, the company closed an additional $60 Million funding from SoftBank on the heels of a $88 Million Series B3, underscoring its importance to Web3 security.
In this article, we will explore why CertiK is essential for the security of the Web3 ecosystem.
Overview of Web3 Security
Web3 technology is transforming the digital asset economy and offering users a decentralised way to store, share, and manage their digital identities. However, as the use of Web3 continues to grow, so does the need for solutions that can ensure its security and reliable operation. That’s where CertiK comes in.
CertiK is a blockchain platform designed to make web3 development safer and more trustworthy for users by providing third-party security audit solutions to developers, currencies, DApps and smart contracts. The company’s tools can detect vulnerabilities and potential bugs in these applications and certify that certain features work correctly.
With its unique approach of formal verification combined with manual audit coverage, CertiK helps developers build high-quality applications while giving end users peace of mind knowing they are secure. Recently, CertiK announced an additional $60 million in funding from SoftBank on the heels of a successful $88 million Series B3 financing round last year. This will help CertiK expand its footprint globally and continue empowering innovation within the decentralised finance (DeFi) space with greater web3 security measures – all while acting as a trusted source for auditing services for businesses in any jurisdiction, blockchain protocol regulations or commonly accepted best practices.
What is CertiK?
CertiK is an innovative blockchain-based cybersecurity engineering firm that provides next-generation security procedures for smart contracts and blockchain protocols. Founded
in 2017 by a team of Columbia University professors, they aimed to revolutionise how we build secure blockchain platforms. As one of the leading companies in this field, CertiK has closed an additional $60 million funding from SoftBank group on the heels of its $88 million Series B3 round.
CertiK offers two products: CertiK Audit and CertiK Ocean Protocols. Through these services, the company provides unprecedented transparency and security for blockchains, ensuring that every transaction or smart contract execution preserves the integrity of a given application. In addition, their technology monitors real-time incoming transactions, detects security flaws and vulnerabilities quickly without requiring dedicated personnel to supervise them. In other words, they reduce risks associated with software bugs and continuous development while stabilising systems within the environment they deploy in.
Using their proprietary Formal Verification tool, CertiK is capable of mathematically validate that a set of codes will function as intended while protecting users’ rights over their digital assets; This also prevents applications from built-in errors that might lead to data manipulation or financial loss to end-users without proper access control or resources providing them with insurance layers if something goes wrong during code deployment process. By incorporating a formal verification process with their core architecture, CertiK is now closing gaps between high ground compliant companies against potential hacker attacks and breaking safe boundaries into web3 ecosystem’s pillar security protocols.
CertiK’s Role in Web3 Security
CertiK, a blockchain and smart contract audit firm, has been at the forefront of protecting the security of the Web3 ecosystem. With their recent Series B3 raise of $60 million from SoftBank, they are well-equipped to provide more security to the blockchain industry.
Let’s explore how CertiK is essential to ensuring the security of the Web3 ecosystem.
CertiK’s Smart Contract Security Platform
CertiK is an industry-leading smart contract security platform that provides comprehensive audit and defence solutions for the Web3 ecosystem. The platform ensures a secure environment for decentralised applications (dapps) through its proprietary automated formal verification methods, which mathematically prove the correctness of code and can catch bugs, exploits, and malicious behaviour with up to 95 percent accuracy.
The company has just closed an additional round of funding from SoftBank Group to support their Web3 security platform development. The investment follows CertiK’s Series B2 funding round of $63M in April 2021 — bringing total Series B financing to a record-breaking $150 million — as well as their Series A1 funding round of $20 million in October 2019.
Since its launch in 2018, CertiK has grown exponentially: it now serves thousands of customers worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies and Hyperledger Certified Solution Providers; provides support for over 30 blockchains; powers more than 300 projects from leading enterprise companies, blockchain infrastructure providers and smart contract developers; boosts top DeFi protocols like Synthetix Exchange; and was voted the #1 blockchain security company from 2019-2021 in the Cointelegraph Awards.
CertiK’s solutions focus on three pillars: Auditing, Securing & Safeguarding (with defence tools for real time analysis); DevSecOps (a fast track process so projects can quickly comply with auditing requirements); and Smart Wallets (solutions to ensure that wallets are secure by design). These capabilities make it indispensable as more businesses turn to digital asset management activities within Web 3-powered ecosystems.
CertiK’s Security Auditing Services
CertiK is an industry-leading provider of security audits for Web3 technologies, trusted by developers and projects throughout the space. With a commitment to customer success, CertiK provides comprehensive auditing services that ensure the highest levels of security and reliability.
CertiK’s security auditing service safeguards each layer of the technology stack – from core protocol development to network consensus protocols and smart contracts. Using static analysis, dynamic testing, and manual reviews, Certified engineers conduct rigorous reviews that reduce the risk of attack vectors and data vulnerabilities by identifying previously undetected potential risk areas.
The value offered by Certik’s security auditing services is especially important in a Web 3 world, which relies on blockchain systems to store data and transact across all applications. This reliance highlights the need for projects in this space to implement higher standards for secure codingÑfrom mobile apps to DeFi protocols. In addition, with an ever-growing number of protocols being built on Ethereum or other smart contract platforms like EOS or Cosmos, ensuring their security before going live is more important than ever. That’s where CertiK comes in — offering superior protection through rigorous testing before launch.
Through its enhanced security solutions, CeetiK prevents malicious actors from exploiting weak implementations and allows developers to increase user trust more quickly as they can now safely deploy their products without worrying about potential vulnerabilities in future updates or third-party code. As such, CertiK aims to provide peace of mind for users & developers building on public chains & permissioned networks alike when it comes to procedure signing storage & transaction verification.
Recent Funding Round
CertiK, an xSC platform aiming to provide automated formal verification to ensure the security and reliability of complex smart contracts and blockchain ecosystems, recently closed a $60 million funding round from SoftBank, with an additional $88 million coming from their Series B3 round.
This funding highlights the need for web3 security and the importance of CertiK’s automated formal verification system for the Web3 ecosystem. So let’s take a closer look.
Overview of SoftBank’s Investment
SoftBank’s investment in CertiK, as closing an additional $60 million funding round, serves as an incredible testament to the value of the platform and its potential to improve security. This round follows an initial $88 million Series B3 announced in July 2020. The investors’ list includes SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia Capital China and Index Ventures.
The new funding will enhance CertiK’s security infrastructure and expand its operations worldwide. It will also support product development efforts, which include new automated self-healing tools for real-time code issues detection and certification for blockchain use cases like Defi and NFT development. The overall goal is to create a more secure Web3 ecosystem with better protections against malicious actors or bugs/errors in programming code and improved compliance with government regulations.
The partnership also provides access to SoftBank’s expertise in emerging technologies and its industry contacts and resources network. This will be invaluable for helping spread awareness of the need for robust security measures for the Web3 space, which is expected to grow tremendously over the next few years due to increased adoption of decentralised finance (DeFi) products and services.
Impact of the Investment
The investment from Softbank is a significant endorsement of CertiK and further solidifies its position as a leader in Web3 security. It marks the largest single venture capital investment in the Web3 security sector. This new funding will accelerate the commercial adoption of CertiK’s platform, which helps secure and propel web3 applications into production with end-to-end auditability, scalability, and cost-effectiveness.
The funding round is a reflection of the critical importance that Web3 security plays in an ever-evolving digital economy. With the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies, smart contracts and other distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), security has become a top priority for businesses looking to use blockchain technology.
CertiK’s comprehensive lifecycle toolset protects against malicious code vulnerabilities, enables risk-free upgrades for immutable DApps and ensures secure transactions between users on decentralised networks. As a result, this technology is highly sought-after due to its ability to prevent data breaches, enhance privacy protection and dramatically reduce costs associated with web3 application development.
Additionally, the investment provides additional resources toward CertiK’s mission of helping blockchain developers reliably create safe protocols and move them quickly into production. With this increased backing, CertiK can continue building trust within the blockchain ecosystem through advanced AI technology and industry best practices. The goal is ultimately to create a comprehensive digital infrastructure that promotes open access while providing individuals greater control over their data and their economic identity on Web 3.
