[OP-ED] The Importance of Smart Contract Audits: Securing the Future of Decentralized Systems

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. BitPinas has no commercial relationship with any mentioned entity unless otherwise stated.

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By Andrea Faith Alimorong

In 2024 alone, hackers took off with over $2 billion from DeFi projects. The biggest hack in the history recorded; Bybit $1.46 billion access control exploit this Q1 of 2025. Access control exploits were the dominant hack, with 80% of the total value stolen. Three consecutive quarters have seen the largest exploits originate from compromised multisig wallets, all involving Safe wallets. Smart contract vulnerabilities accounted for just under 2% of total loss. The $LIBRA rug pull, involving the Argentine President, drained from traders.

While smart contract vulnerabilities remain a threat, most damage is now caused by failures in people, processes, or permission systems. Most of that happened because they found weak spots in smart contracts. It’s a harsh reminder that, in the world of blockchain, where code really is law, and even the tiniest bug can lead to massive, irreversible losses in no time.

This is a contributed article by Andrea Faith Alimorong, the Tech Lead at ICP PH.

Smart contracts are basically lines of code that run on a blockchain and do things automatically, no middlemen needed. They’re shaking up everything: finance, supply chains, healthcare, you name it. The big selling points? More transparency, faster processes, and lower costs.

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But here’s the thing: these contracts often hold a ton of money. And if there’s even a small bug, it’s like leaving a bank vault wide open. That’s not something you want to find out the hard way.

This is why smart contract audits are so important. They’re not just some “nice-to-have” or a box to tick for investors. Audits help keep people’s funds safe, build trust with your community, and give your project a real shot at long-term success.

At the end of the day, if you’re serious about your project, an smart contract audit isn’t optional, it’s a must!

What Is a Smart Contract Audit?

A smart contract audit is a comprehensive review of the code that governs the behavior of smart contracts. It is typically conducted by cybersecurity professionals or web3 security audit firms who analyze the codebase to identify potential vulnerabilities, inefficiencies, or logical flaws. These audits may include:

• Automated vulnerability scanning
• Manual code review
• Gas optimization analysis
• Formal verification of smart contract logic
• Testing attack vectors such as reentrancy, overflow/underflow, and front-running

Auditors assess the contract’s behavior using both manual review and automated tools, often combined with unit testing and formal verification techniques.

Here’s a simplified example of an insecure function:

An audit would flag the order of operations here: external calls (call) are made before internal state updates (balances[msg.sender] -= _amount), opening the door to reentrancy attacks.

Why Smart Contract Audits Are Critical?

A. Protecting Digital Assets

Smart contracts often hold and manage substantial sums of cryptocurrency. Without proper auditing, minor bugs can be catastrophic. Consider the infamous DAO Hack of 2016, where a vulnerability led to a $60 million theft eventually resulting in the Ethereum and Ethereum Classic split.

Audits identify issues like these before malicious actors do.

B. Building Trust in a Trustless System

Blockchain is designed to remove the need for trust, but users still rely on developers’ diligence. Publishing a smart contract audit report from a respected firm signals that your project takes security seriously an essential factor in gaining user, investor, and institutional trust.

C. Ensuring Regulatory Readiness

As governments consider regulating DeFi and Web3 platforms, secure-by-design systems may be favored. Conducting and publishing audits positions your project to align with legal expectations for security and risk mitigation, even in a regulatory gray zone.

D. Optimizing Performance and Cost

Audits don’t just catch bugs they often highlight inefficient gas usage. Optimizing smart contracts can reduce user fees and improve dApp performance.

The second version is gas-optimized by caching the array length and using unchecked to avoid unnecessary overflow checks (safe in this context).

When and How Often Should Audits Happen?

Don’t think of smart contract audits as something you do once and then forget about. They’re more like regular checkups for your code; you need to keep coming back to make sure everything’s healthy and running smoothly as your project evolves. The first audit should always happen before you push your contract live on the mainnet. This helps catch any serious bugs or vulnerabilities before real money is on the line.

That first audit isn’t the end of the story. Whenever you make small or big updates, like changing core logic, adding new features, or messing with the inner workings, it’s a good idea to do another audit to make sure nothing breaks. This is extra important if your contract uses upgradeable patterns or proxy setups since these can easily introduce new risks.

If your contract talks to other protocols or relies on external oracles, it’s smart to re-audit regularly. Sometimes, things you don’t even control can cause issues. A change somewhere else in the ecosystem might create new risks for your contract without you realizing it.

Making security part of your development routine (instead of treating it like an afterthought) is the best way to protect your project and your users in the long run.

Common Vulnerabilities Caught in Audits

OWASP Smart Contract Top 10

Smart contract audits are super important because they help catch sneaky bugs that could put your project and your users’ money in serious danger. One classic example is reentrancy, where an attacker basically tricks your contract into calling back into itself before it finishes updating. This can let them drain funds over and over before the contract even realizes what’s happening. That’s how some hackers manage to drain funds again and again before the contract realizes what’s happening.

Another classic problem is integer overflows. This happens when math operations go beyond what the number type can handle, causing weird, unexpected behavior. This used to be a big problem in contracts written before Solidity 0.8.0, which thankfully added built-in checks.

Then there’s the mistake of using tx.origin for authentication. It might seem like a handy shortcut, but it’s actually pretty dangerous since attackers can manipulate it through other contracts — it’s just not a reliable way to check who’s really calling.

Access control issues are also common. For example, forgetting to add onlyOwner or missing important require checks can let random people mess with sensitive functions they shouldn’t have access to.

And don’t forget about Denial of Service (DoS) attacks using gas limits. These happen when your contract tries to loop over big lists, and if the loop gets too big, the transaction can fail, effectively breaking parts of your contract.

This is why audits are so important: they help you find these vulnerabilities early so you can lock things down before your contract goes live and starts handling real value.

Partnering with Experts: Sudoers Security

If you’re serious about deploying secure, scalable, and efficient smart contracts, working with an experienced security partner is non-negotiable.

Sudoers Security provides enterprise-grade cybersecurity services in Smart Contract Audits, Web2 & Web3 Penetration Testing, Blockchain Security Assessments, Decentralized Application (dApp) Security Assessments, and Cybersecurity Trainings to protect organizations and businesses from evolving threats.

With a team of blockchain engineers and ethical hackers holding industry-leading cybersecurity certifications demonstrating expertise and commitment to maintain highest standards in security practices.

Sudoers Security provides the following for web3 domain:

• Thorough code analysis (manual + automated)
• Gas optimization and performance profiling
• Threat modeling and formal verification
• Custom security tooling
• Post-deployment monitoring
• Advisory on secure development lifecycle (SDLC)
• Comprehensive and detailed reports

Whether you’re launching a new DeFi protocol, building a DAO governance model, or migrating contracts to L2, Sudoers Security ensures your code is airtight before it goes live.

“We don’t just audit code, we secure ecosystems.”

Security is not just a feature it’s a foundation. Security Audits protect not just your users’ funds, but also your project’s credibility and future.

With partners like Sudoers Security, you’re not just deploying code you’re launching with confidence.

Want to learn more or book an audit? Visit sudoers-sec.com or reach out to the team via the QR above to secure your smart contract before it’s too late.

Because in Web3, your code is your castle and every castle needs strong walls.

This is an opinion article contributed to BitPinas: The Importance of Smart Contract Audits: Securing the Future of Decentralized Systems

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