White Hat Hackers Make $878,000 From Crypto Bug Bounties in 2018
The crypto space mostly depends upon various software developed by programmers like Satoshi Nakamoto and many others. Blockchain, a technology built on the software is not entirely safe especially when it comes to hacks.
White hat hackers are developers who reveal the vulnerability in the codes of particular companies, so they can fix them. Reportedly, White hat hackers have been awarded $878,000 in bug bounties this year. Bug bounties are a competition in which companies that develop software invite hackers to break their software and responsibly disclose the bugs, in order to avoid a security breach.
These responsible disclosure programs actually consolidate the cryptosphere by assisting the firms. Hackerone, a bug bounty platform made these hackers earn $534,500. Notably, EOS’s parent company Block.one accounts for more than 60 percent of all bounties handed out in 2018.
Hackerone explains that this year white hat hackers have gained over $878,000 by participating in blockchain bounties. Also, there are a significant amount of cryptocurrency bounties that remain unclaimed. It seems that the trend of responsible disclosure programs is going to long last.
Moreover, a US-based crypto giant Coinbase delivered over $290,000 to programmers for disclosing bounties in 2018. It is the second-largest bounty spender. Tron trailed in the third place, reportedly paying $76,200 this year.
A spokesperson from Hackerone stated, “Nearly 4 percent of all bounties awarded on Hackerone in 2018 were from blockchain and cryptocurrency companies,” adding, “The average bounty for all blockchain companies in 2018 was $1490, that is higher than the Q4 platform average of around $900. One of the top paid crypto hackers earned 7X the median software engineer salary in their country respectively.”
Remarkably, two massive crypto firms prevented possible disruption because of responsible disclosure. Moreover, EOS decentralized apps (DApps) have last up to $1 million due to hacks since July. The firm regretted about the fact that the security researchers disclosed vulnerabilities in its hardware wallets publicly instead of following the standard security principles that are written in Ledger’s Bounty program. All in all, blockchain bounties and disclosure programs that have strengthened the crypto ecosystem.
