The Potential of AI and Smart Contract Auditing | Ruby with supervisor To Ma

On February 19, 2024, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin posted the following on X:

“One application of AI that I’m excited about is using AI to formally verify code and find bugs. Right now, the biggest technical risk in Ethereum is probably bugs in the code, so anything that could be a game changer in that space would be great.”

From these remarks, it is clear that AI is attracting attention throughout the Web 3.0 industry. Especially in the field of smart contract audits, it is expected that AI will be used to improve audit efficiency.

KEKKAI is also currently actively conducting research in this field. AI can read code instantly, and compared to humans, it has a notable advantage in experience accumulation, comprehensiveness of situations, and its learning ability. With these characteristics, AI is expected to help users effectively reduce losses due to contract vulnerabilities.

According to data, cryptocurrency users lost approximately $2 billion in 2023 due to hacking and fraud. Ethereum, in particular, has been hit the hardest due to its extensive ecosystem and high-profile projects. Most of these losses are due to protocol vulnerabilities and improper code.

As AI technology continues to evolve, can AI, which also has excellent application capabilities in terms of data analysis and insights, surpass human auditors in the important task of ensuring the security of smart contracts?

AI cannot currently fully replace human audits

In conclusion, although AI shows many advantages in smart contract audits, it cannot completely replace human audits at present. Here are some reasons why:

Understanding the background:

Smart contracts do not exist in isolation, but interact with complex systems and ecosystems. AI is still limited compared to humans in understanding these interactions and potential security risks. Especially when complex business logic is involved, AI is still insufficient.

Explanatory and judgmental:

When AI finds a problem, it is important to explain the cause of the problem or vulnerability. Human auditors can not only explain the code but also evaluate the risk and make appropriate judgments. Current large-scale language models (LLMs) can be used to find vulnerabilities, but they have a high false positive rate and can waste a lot of time.

Creativity and ability to respond to new threats:

Cybercriminals are constantly developing new methods and may use attack methods that AI has not yet covered. Human auditors can use their experience and creativity to deal with these new threats and make up for AI's shortcomings. Although AI has the capabilities of machine learning, human intelligence still has the advantage when dealing with unpredictable threats.

AI is revolutionizing the field of smart contract auditing, making the audit process more efficient and comprehensive. However, AI is not a panacea. At this stage, AI is best used as a tool to complement human auditors. It is possible that AI will completely replace human security auditors in the future, but there is still a long way to go.

https://kekkai.io

Profile

◉Zhang Yuwei (Ruby)

In January 2023, while attending graduate school, she joined KEKKAI Co., Ltd. as a founding member. Ruby is passionate about promoting projects that create new value from 0 to 1 and developing marketing strategies.

Currently, in addition to providing security tools "KEKKAI Plugin" and "KEKKAI Mobile" that detect risks for users, the company is also developing transaction analysis API "KEKKAI API/SDK" and code audit service "KEKKAI Audit" for businesses.

Supervisor

◉To Ma

CEO of KEKKAI Co., Ltd.

After graduating from high school, he came to Japan from China and started a business while attending university. In January 2023, he founded KEKKAI Co., Ltd., which provides blockchain security solutions.

Currently, the company has released "KEKKAI Plugin," a Web 3.0 security product that can detect risks through transaction simulation analysis, an API/SDK service that can detect NFT fraud and simulate transactions, and a Web 3 code audit business for corporations. In the future, the company plans to improve its current services and release products to improve user security from various angles, thereby contributing to improving the environment across the industry.

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