Ethereum Foundation launches Trillion-Dollar Security initiative

The Ethereum Foundation announced the trillion-dollar security initiative, going against varied threats in the ecosystem. The network is considered secure due to its staking requirement, but Ethereum is one of the networks facing the most exploits. 

The Ethereum Foundation announced the trillion-dollar security initiative, aiming to secure the entire ecosystem in the case of wider adoption. The potential value of Ethereum reflects an average holding of $1,000, collectively amounting to trillions of dollars. 

The Ethereum ecosystem is one of the most heavily affected by hackers . Logic flaws in smart contracts, bridges, DEX trading attacks, and personal wallet attacks are among the most common exploits. The ecosystem also allows for hiding the funds, with the Tornado Cash mixer and other DeFi services allowing the hackers to disguise the origin of funds. 

The Ethereum Foundation aims to mitigate those risks, so even large organizations would be willing to place over $1T in a smart contract. 

The initiative arrives at a time when ETH is trying to revive its market price. ETH traded at $2,601.91 after touching the highest levels since February.

Ethereum Foundation gathers data on security threats

The initiative will be led by Fredrik Svantes and Josh Stark, the initial co-chairs of the project. They will also have a three-person ecosystem stewards team, who will communicate with projects and provide input and advice.

The new team will map the Ethereum landscape for security threats and potential attack vectors across the entire EVM technology stack. The Ethereum Foundation has already set up a form for suggestions and reporting general security concerns. The findings will be presented in the form of a special report to identify focus areas. 

The mapping stage will investigate multiple Ethereum aspects, including blind signing, frontend security, wallet security, smart contracts, cloud infrastructure, consensus and protocol security, as well as Internet-level attacks, such as DNS-level censorship.

The team assigned by the Ethereum Foundation will identify and communicate pressing issues. Currently, on-chain security is still performed on a case-by-case basis, with special entities reviewing smart contracts. Yet even vetted, secure projects face exploits, suggesting the need for a common standard for identifying potential threats. 

Ethereum remains the top hacked chain

Estimated on-chain hacks have taken up to $5.3B in value, depending on the current asset price. 

Ethereum makes up between 40% and 50% of all hacks happening directly on the L1 chain. Multiple hacks also affected L2 chains, for the ease of switching back to Ethereum. 

Ethereum still faces the biggest hacks, ranging from infrastructure to DEX rug pulls, bridge attacks, smart contract exploits, and wallet phishing. | Source: Dune Analytics

Despite the threats, the Ethereum Foundation explained its rationale behind the initiative as trying to bring the world on-chain. 

Ethereum’s L1 is once again trying to be scalable and become a venue for direct activity after allowing multiple L2 chains to siphon away traffic. However, the extra staking and security did not prevent hacks and, in fact, increased the amount stolen. Bridges between L1 and L2 were among the most attacked smart contracts due to the significant value locked and flaws in the smart contract logic.

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