The Current State of Audit Contests
summary
Audit contests report concrete growth and changing economics: there are 625 audit contests historically with ~$36M paid to participants and 221 contests in 2024 so far, yielding roughly 8,000 rewarded vulnerabilities in six months. Platforms split into two models—one with reserved reviewers, fixed pots and multi-week scopes, the other open, short, variable-priced with no guaranteed payouts—creating a clear divide between audit-like contests vs bug-bounty contests and shifting judging, payout and participation incentives.
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chapters (7)
- 0:00Audit contests in crypto
- 1:04Audit vs audits vs bounties
- 3:532024 contest stats and growth
- 5:58New trends in audit contests
- 9:47Contests versus bug bounties
- 12:38Future of contests and safety
- 13:23Q&A
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