How to tell good blockchain projects among various blockchain projects? How to find secure problems among various blockchain DApps? Blockchain DApps have developed rapidly in China in 2018. More and more blockchain technology and Dapps are used in different industries, which are changing people’s daily lives and working. At the same time many problems also appear and need to be solved.
In 24th October, The National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team (CNCERT) and Changsha Economic Development Zone made an official signing ceremony to build up the only Blockchain Security Technology Testing Center (BSTTC) in China. The BSTTC will start the business of blockchain code audit, security monitoring and risk monitoring together with Xingsha blockchain Industrial park. The official signing ceremony invited Du Cuilan from National Internet Emergency Center, Director Qing Lixin from Hunan Provincial Network Office, Chairman Wen Shuxun from Changsha CPPCC, Director Zhang Qinghong from Changsha Economic Development Zone Management Committee, Director Mo Xiaojia from Changsha City Netcom Office and leaders at all levels from Changsha County.
Security risks of blockchain need to be solved
At the signing ceremony, Wu Zhen, head of CNCERT, Secretary-General of the National Internet Financial Security Technical Expert Committee, introduced the current security problems in blockchain, including economic security, social security and technical security.
The economic and social security of blockchain mainly involve virtual digital currency and virtual digital assets. They may impact on national sovereign currency, or become tools for money laundering and evading control, or involve in illegal fund-raising and fraudulent pyramid schemes, which will threaten the country’s economic security and people’s property security, trigger mass incidents and affect China’s social stability.
The technical security of blockchain refers to the security of the underlying technology and the applications of upper layer, which is the key task for BSTTC. With a series of characteristics such as “decentralization”, “traceability” and “high privacy”, blockchain is currently used in finance and other high-risky and high-sensitive industries. While there are various attack on these business vulnerabilities. From the events of virtual currency theft and the attack on exchanges, the problems in the underlying technology of blockchain are only the tip of the iceberg, and the blockchain security need a long-term tracking and disposal.
Wu Zhen emphasized that it is necessary to build a security system around the physical layer, data layer, application layer, encryption algorithm, and risk control to solve blockchain security problems. Meanwhile, the popularity and usage of blockchain technology have new demands on ensuring the security of data storage, transmission and applications. “The maturity and stability of the blockchain technology, the security of the development of smart contracts are key factors for the successful promotion of the blockchain technology and related applications.”
The first national-level technical testing center is settled in Xingsha
As a national-level organization for early warning, coordination and disposal of Internet security incidents, why does CNCERT choose to cooperate with Changsha Economic Development Zone to establish the country’s first blockchain security technology testing center?
Wu Zhen said “From our earlier research, the blockchain technology, as an emerging technical framework, has high professional requirements for developers. It is difficult for the general development team to independently undertake the code audit work, who may also require an external professional team to assist in the formal verification and penetration testing of the original code of applications or blockchain smart contracts.” Changsha Economic Development Zone initially established Xingsha Blockchain Industrial Park, issued blockchain industry support policy, and successfully held China Xingsha Blockchain Academician Summit Forum, which already has a good foundation and can provide high-quality technical support for technical testing centers.
Wu Zhen introduced that after the establishment of BSTTC, CNCERT will cooperate with Changsha Economic Development Zone under the principle of co-establishing and co-sharing and the concept of blockchain thoughts and sharing economy to absorb enterprises with the ability of testing blockchain security technology into the working group of the testing center. The testing work is distributed by the random algorithm and the zero-knowledge proof technologies. First, enterprises with testing capabilities can be effectively organized to ensure a fair and transparent distribution of project benefits. Second, it can effectively protect the rights and related business secrets of the inspected companies.
Implement risk dynamic monitoring through the code audit
How to effectively supervise after the establishment of BSTTC? Tan Lin, the member of BSTTC working group and head of Hunan Tianheguoyun, told reporters that “the blockchain code audit will implement dynamic supervision of blockchain”.
Tan Lin said that smart contracts are the basic characteristics and foundation of blockchain. The open source nature of smart contract codes requires high reliability of code and the 100% correctness. But blockchain projects can’t guarantee the code accuracy completely. Just like anyone makes a typo when typing on the computer, programmers also make mistakes when entering codes.
A code audit platform can solve these security issues which smart contracts face. Aiming at the frequent vulnerabilities of smart contract security, with the most effective formal verification method of code quality assurance, it has developed a highly automated formal verification platform that can improve the security and functional correctness of smart contracts. It provides services such as secure contract code audit, and contract security verification to fundamentally improve the security of smart contracts and effectively improve the application security of blockchain technology.
Huge economic and social benefits
As the core unit of national network security, CNCERT has the authority and professionalism to carry out blockchain security management work. BSTTC, established by CNCERT and Changsha Economic Development Zone is the only blockchain security technology testing center in China, which will standardize the blockchain industry development and maintain social stability. Its monitoring data and reports will support the country’s work in the area of Internet finance and blockchain regulation.
Changsha Economic Development Zone’s relevant represent said that after the project is running, it will also drive the development of the blockchain industry in Central and South China, which will bring huge economic benefits. Changsha Economic Development Zone will further strengthen cooperation with CNCERT, National University of Defense Technology and other institutes to serve the country and industries by providing blockchain security technology testing. Changsha Economic Development Zone has an initially layout and successfully built Xingsha blockchain industrial park this year. Based on the outstanding achievements of the blockchain academician summit forum and Xingsha blockchain projects, Changsha Economic Development Zone grasped the chance once again for the layout of blockchain security testing to concentrate on the development of blockchain testing technology and making it a huge industry. The responsible person predicted that in the next five years, it is expected that in the next five years, BSTTC will drive the annual output value of the blockchain software testing service to reach $70 million.
