Smart contract security firm Quantstamp has announced that, following “significant investment” from Japan’s Nomura Holdings and Digital Garage, it is establishing a Japanese subsidiary (Quantstamp Japan GK) that will “assist Japanese startups and enterprises in using secure blockchain technology.”

Although Quantstamp provides consulting services for companies that need help with evaluation and system integration of their blockchain strategy, its main area of expertise is auditing of smart contracts. So far, its smart contract auditing services “have been used to secure more than $500 million of transaction value.”

Quantstamp, which is backed by Y Combinator, is “developing a protocol that audits smart contracts using formal verification in order to find bugs before contracts are published to the blockchain.” Its developers aim to “secure and verify audits using a distributed network of nodes, similar to how an Ethereum node secures and validates a transaction. The Quantstamp protocol aims to be a scalable and cost-effective solution to the smart contract crisis.” The “crisis” that Quantstamp is talking about here is the fact that “over $250 million dollars worth of Ether” have been “either locked or stolen from the Ethereum network due to bugs in smart contracts.” In fact, its CEO, Richard Ma, “experienced the problem firsthand after his funds were stolen during the DAO hack.” 

Quantstamp is different from most other smart contract auditing firms in that it does not only provide manual auditing, and that it is also developing the Quantstamp Protocol, which consists of two parts:

  • “An automated and upgradeable software verification system that checks smart contract code such as Solidity programs.”
  • “An automated payout system that rewards human participants in QSP tokens for finding errors in smart contracts. The purpose of this system is to bridge the gap while moving towards the goal of full automation.”

The great thing about the Quantstamp Protocol is that it is “automated, scalable and without the need of a trusted 3rd party.” Via this automation, the protocol “will be able to handle audits much faster than a centralized manual auditing company.”

According to Quantstamp’s press release, Richard Ma, Co-Founder and CEO Quantstamp Inc., had this to say about the expansion of Quanstamp’s presence to Japan:

“I’m pleased to announce Quantstamp’s formal expansion to Japan, Japan is an important market in digital payments. We’re expanding our presence as we think that the market for smart contract-driven applications here is strong and will only be growing.”

Chuzaburo Yagi, Senior Managing Director in charge of Innovations at Nomura Holdings, Inc., stated:

“As blockchain technology is adopted in the financial world, smart contracts will play an increasingly important role. Security assurances through auditing and certification will become increasingly indispensable. I believe Quantstamp is well positioned to support this role as they work to secure smart contract technology.”

And finally, Yasuhiro Mimura, Managing Director of DG Incubation Co., Ltd., commented:

“I think that Quantstamp offers the best service on the market. It’s the best solution for identifying and mitigating smart contract vulnerabilities. With their knowledge and experience on smart contract security, we are hoping for further breakthroughs in the future.“

 

Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pexels.com