Dash to unleash elite cybersecurity unit to ‘hack’ its blockchain

Dash, the payments-focused digital currency, has received approval from the Dash community to employ the services of Bugcrowd, a leader in crowdsourced security testing. The partnership means thousands of security researchers will be incentivized to identify critical software vulnerabilities within Dash’s code and present them to the Dash Core Team for remediation.

Commencing in August, Dash will employ a private bug bounty program through Bugcrowd, tapping into a curated, invite-only crowd to find Dash vulnerabilities, and then, in line with the rollout of Evolution, expand to a public program where over 60,000 registered security experts around the world will detect issues on behalf of Dash and be rewarded in bug bounty payments.

Jim Bursch, Director of DashIncubator and Bugcrowd’s proposal creator said:

“Our goal is a safer, stronger network. We are talking about money, the digital equivalent of cold, hard cash. Meaningful amounts of cash attract a powerful incentive for thieves on a global scale. The Dash project is like building a bank vault and inviting elite bank robbers to participate in its design, so it can’t be robbed by other criminals.”

In the short history of cryptocurrency, hacks have already bruised the industry and enterprise has felt the pain for well over a decade. Just last month, a hacker walked away with $7 million USD from investors participating in CoinDash’s ICO. In June of last year, over $50 million USD was stolen in The DAO hack, and also last month the Ethereum Parity Wallet was hacked for over $30 million.

Dash Core CEO Ryan Taylor said:

“As Dash gains more mainstream attention, identifying and fixing vulnerabilities is absolutely imperative. Bug bounty programs attract fresh eyes to review code which ensures white-hat hackers help identify any security flaws. Providing strong incentives to attract experienced programmers is one of the many tools we have at our disposal to ensure the Dash codebase is as robust as possible.”

“Our landmark release, Evolution, aims to completely redefine how a digital currency functions and will be available for Alpha testing in December. Providing that optimal user experience requires a massive change to the underlying technology. The more improvements Dash adds to the original Bitcoin code, which Dash is based on, means we will continue to invest heavily in ensuring our product meets the highest standard possible. Because digital currencies store wealth and facilitate the transfer of payments, it is critical that we take all measures possible to make absolutely sure that even minor software bugs are addressed.”

Bugcrowd enlists over 60,000 security researchers to surface critical software vulnerabilities. In any given fortnight, Bugcrowd researchers typically find about five critical vulnerabilities, 70 unique vulnerabilities, and 200 total vulnerabilities.

Bugcrowd CEO Casey Ellis said:

“Currently, there is a massive shortage of cybersecurity professionals – pair this with an expanding attack surface and companies are at a major security disadvantage. We have amassed a solid resource of professional security researchers and years of experience managing highly complex programs. We are living in the era of digital transformation – cryptocurrency is the next stage in this evolution. Given the globalization of the workforce, it stands to reason that the demand for cryptocurrency will grow.

“Regardless of size, organizations that attempt a self-managed program quickly find the process overwhelming. Defining scope, identifying program security owners, establishing a vulnerability management program, and even determining time-to-fix agreements within that program — all of these require time and resources both in the setup, and on an ongoing basis as the program evolves. By choosing Bugcrowd to manage their bug bounty, Dash has taken the work out of running a bug bounty program, so all they see are results.”