LayerZero Labs, the workforce behind cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero, has partnered with bug bounty and safety providers platform Immunefi to launch a $15 million bug bounty for its protocol, Bryan Pellegrino, co-founder and CEO of LayerZero, completely informed TechCrunch.
The bug bounty alliance will supply a most reward of $15 million for every new vulnerability discovered by white hat hackers. The platform has introduced bug bounties previously, however none so giant, Pellegrino stated.
The $15 million most reward additionally makes this the biggest bug bounty program within the crypto ecosystem, surpassing MakerDAO’s $10 million program.
“We have the funds for to pay out loads of bounties. The safety of the protocol comes earlier than anything,” Pellegrino stated. The reward cash will come from the fairness entity of LayerZero Labs, Pellegrino added.
Immunefi says it supplies safety providers for over $60 billion in consumer funds throughout crypto-based initiatives and firms like Polygon, Synthetix, Chainlink, SushiSwap, MakerDAO and Optimism. It has paid out over $75 million in rewards for bug bounties so far.
Final month, LayerZero raised $120 million in a Collection B spherical at a $3 billion valuation. Not like Internet 2.0 messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram, its messaging protocol lets customers ship various kinds of messages between blockchains, like cross-chain interactions, eliminating the necessity for intermediaries. LayerZero connects over 30 mainnet blockchains, together with two non-Ethereum Digital Machines (EVMs) and Aptos.
Previously yr, the crypto ecosystem misplaced about $9.33 trillion to exploits, hacks and scams, with a little bit beneath $1 trillion recovered, in keeping with De.Fi’s REKT database.
Over $3.9 billion was “lost” final yr, in keeping with Immunefi’s Crypto Losses 2022 report. Whereas which may look like a whopping quantity of capital to lose monitor of, it’s 51.2% lower than 2021, when over $8 billion was stolen, the report discovered.
In 2022, the vast majority of losses, or $3.77 billion, had been on account of hacks throughout 134 particular incidents. About $175 million was misplaced to fraud throughout 34 incidents in the identical time-frame.
Launched in March 2022, LayerZero has seen transaction quantity of over $15 billion in its 14 months to this point, Pellegrino stated. Since its inception, the messaging protocol has “by no means had a safety exploit or hack,” he added.
LayerZero spent about $5 million on auditing final yr to make sure its safety, and it goals to observe a course of to make sure its code’s safety earlier than it’s launched, Pellegrino stated.
Regardless that the market sees fewer losses, the numbers being misplaced are nonetheless large. In March, hackers stole around $200 million from crypto lending platform Euler Finance. Whereas this appears like some huge cash — and it’s — it’s solely the Twenty sixth-largest crypto theft ever, De.Fi information confirmed.
“For anybody constructing within the house, safety ought to be the precedence above all else,” Pellegrino stated. “When you don’t have good safety, ultimately you may be hacked.”
