👋Intro to Codehawks

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 with security reviews through a streamlined process of Deep and Competitive Audits performed by top world auditors and our community. You can find a brief overview of how CodeHawks works below. For a deep dive into the CodeHawks ecosystem checkout the dedicate guide

The Problem CodeHawks Solves

Digital value exchange enabled by decentralised finance and smart contracts requires an outstanding level of security and best practices in order to reach mainstream adoption.

Over $250B are locked in the DeFi ecosystem, and in the past 6 months alone, over $1B are 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 eco-sys

On top of that, the process of finding, hiring, and working with expert and reliable auditors has, until now, been extremely rudimental. Protocols were forced to perform word-of-mouth research, with low to zero 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.

Earn up to 15% for every successful referral as a reward. Help your close associates in securing their DeFi protocols and earn a competitive commission for the connection.

Why CodeHawks?

CodeHawks, powered by Cyfrin, puts together top-notch world-wide auditors and a community of thousands of security researches to ensure highest security standards when security your codebases.

Feature/Attribute	CodeHawks	Competitors
Pricing	Competitive & 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

Learn more about our Philosophy and mission in the dedicated guide.

How CodeHawks works

There are three core components in every CodeHawks smart contract auditing competition:

1. Sponsors (protocols): Organizations or entities that implement smart contracts.

2. Judges: World-leading experts who oversee the audit process and ensure its integrity.

3. Hawks (auditors): Professionals who conduct the actual audit of the smart contracts

For Sponsors

Protocols approach CodeHawks with their audit requirements. They have the flexibility to choose between:

• Competitive Audits: A dynamic audit process where multiple auditors compete to identify vulnerabilities.

• Private Audits: A more traditional approach where a selected auditor or team reviews the smart contract.

Here's how to get started and request an audit for your protocol.

Visit our guide on the CodeHawks ecosystem to read more about the different services we provide to protocols and their teams.

For Hawks (Auditors)

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

For Judges

Judges are the team, community, and protocol members dedicated at reviewing Hawks submissions, deduplicating, validating, testing and ensuring the highest quality standards when selecting them.

They are responsible to ensure our top-notch security reports, revisioning, testing and verifying thousands of security researchers' submissions every year.

If you want to learn more about our judging process or evaluation criteria - visit the dedicated sections.