At ETHCC, Vitalik Buterin mentions many tests that can be used to prove that crypto space companies are safe and durable enough to withstand various attacks.
In his speech at the Ethereum Community Conference or ETHCC, Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin highlights several ways that users and builders can determine whether they are as secure and decentralized as crypto companies claim.
The first test he mentioned was the “Walkaway test.” This included the question of whether the user’s assets were still secure if the company and all of its servers suddenly dissolved. The main advantage of being on-chain means that the user assets are inherently secure, as they are not all held on one server.
“This is the most baseline you should try to get out of chaining your assets instead of being on your server,” says Buterin of ETHCC.
He mentioned “Prim Embedded Wallet” as an example of good security, as it gives users the ability to export to another wallet rather than just keeping one key.
Another example he mentioned is Farcaster, a decentralized social media protocol built on blockchain technology that gives users the option to select a backup address that will serve as the basis for their social media accounts.
“The reason this is surprising is because they achieve their decentralization goals and not just say they have because they are on-chain, they don’t just say they have,” Buterin said.
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The next test is what he calls the “Insider Attack Test.” This raises a scenario of how much damage they can escape if the company is hacked by insider employees or founders themselves.
During the ETHCC speech, Buterin said builders need to assess the weaknesses of the system from insiders, not just from an external perspective. These weaknesses range from smart contracts, UI, and Oracle to top governance token holders.
“I think a lot of the ecosystem projects have done a great job of thinking seriously about these issues, but that’s something we really need to claim more as a first-class asset,” says Buterin of ETHCC.
Another test to consider is the reliable computing-based test. Buterin asks ETHCC viewers to consider a number of “lines of code” that say “I trust you won’t cultivate you.” Essentially, the fewer reliable lines the more secure the system. He believes it’s fine for the system to have millions of code. The same can be said when most of your code is restricted or restricted from performing critical actions.
However, even systems that claim to be unreliable are actually based on trust when TCBs are bloated beyond what anyone can realistically audit.
Finally, Buterin asked the builder to “analyze the game’s properties” that the system creates. He warned that even if the protocol is designed to be decentralized and neutral, it could be centralized if it encourages convenience through centralized solutions, as if how Web1 evolved into Web2.
Therefore, he declared that without a proper decentralized backup solution, users tend to drift towards centralized providers for convenience, and would tend to completely override the benefits of decentralization.
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