I'm starting this small series of "Why I like:" about coins I truly believe in, I can't really be considered as a trader, but more as an investor. I carefully check everything about the projects I invest in and select only the ones that bring an added value to the cryptoworld. This is not financial advice, just my thoughts on this specific project, do your own research.
You might ask, why would I need this, what's the point?
Maybe you are too young ("in the cryptoworld" at least) to remember the "DAO incident" (just type that in your favourite search engine to learn more about it), but this is a prime example of why the security of a smart contract is extremely important.
Quantstamp aims at solving this by building the first scalable security-audit protocol designed to find vulnerabilities in Ethereum smart contracts. I say Ethereum now, but the protocol is both blockchain and language agnostic, therefore, we will probably see Quantstamp everywhere in the future.
For now, the team decided on Ethereum because the team believes in the network effect and Ethereum is for now the most famous blockchain for smart contracts, which should help in the promotion and adoption of Quantstamp.
For smart contracts to truly play an important role in the future, they have to be secure and this audit needs to be both cost-effective and scalable. Automated audits are necessary because human based checks won't be able to keep up with the exploding growth we're seeing in the creation of new smart contracts, Quantstamp is expecting around 10 millions contracts by the end of 2018 (see their whitepaper for reference).
You may now think, mmh interesting project, but how does it actually work?
Quantstamp is a second layer protocol on top of the Ethereum blockchain that allows anyone to submit a contract to have it checked (which you pay in QSP tokens).
The protocol consists in two parts, one is an automated and upgradable audit software that checks Solidity programs submitted (the coding language widely used in smart contracts - and it returns a verification result.
The basic idea is to use modified Ethereum nodes, that instead of mining, perform software verifications and by consensus of the results submitted to the smart contract by the nodes, the so-called "proof-of-audit" is delivered.
These calculations done for verification requires a large amount of computing power and will therefore rewards the "auditors" with QSP tokens; this is the second part of the protocol, an automated bounty payout system for finding errors in smart contracts.
Compared to, maybe cheaper centralized audits, vulnerable to insider attacks; the proof-of-audit protocol designed by Quantstamp is made in such a way that malicious actors cannot manipulate audit results because of the high number of nodes.
In a near future, we can easily imagine that "Quantstamp's quality seal" on a smart contract will bring added value to a project and will confirm the seriousness of the team; this will also bring value to the coin as the limited supply of coin will increase in value for each new successful audit performed.
This will also bring a general sense of security to the crypto-world in general and help adoption to a wider audience. Smart contracts are an essential part of the future of cryptos and recognizing this now and allowing this project to grow can only bring value to the entire eco-system and to your own wallet!
As investors, know that the team tokens are vested for a three-year period and unsold tokens were burn after the crowdsale. 65% were distributed during that sale. I encourage those of you who can participate in the audits to do so, and earn some more QSPs...
