Key Takeaways

• Binance Smart Chain has announced a $10 million bug bounty program to improve on-chain security.
• The program will incentivize ethical hackers to report vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
• The move follows a series of hacks and exploits that have taken place on Binance Smart Chain this year.

Binance Smart Chain has announced a $10 million bug bounty program, aiming to increase the security of decentralized applications in the blockchain’s ecosystem. 
Binance Smart Chain Focuses on Security
Binance is taking steps to address security concerns in Binance Smart Chain (BSC) applications.
On Monday, the exchange announced a $10 million joint bounty program for the BSC ecosystem in an official blog post. The new program, called “Priority ONE,” aims to shore up security by incentivizing ethical hackers to disclose attack vectors discovered in BSC applications. 
The post details how the program will create a safer on-chain environment for users, stating:

“This joint bounty program aims to continuously improve software security and lifecycle management, provide risk controls, and attract more proactive penetration testing to identify issues early.”

As a joint program, Binance will initially provide $3 million to reward successful bug finders. The exchange is aiming to raise the remaining $7 million via a new BSC Evolution Proposal. If the proposal passes, existing validators will need to dedicate a small percentage of their daily block rewards to the bounty pool. 

In 2021, several applications running on BSC have fallen foul of major exploits costing users millions. In March, yield farming project Meerkat Finance lost $31 million of assets in a suspected rug pull. Vulnerabilities in smart contract code have also led to flash loan attacks, wiping out an estimated $200 million in the case of yield aggregator Bunny Finance. 

Attention Bunny Fam

Our project has suffered a flash loan attack from an outside exploiter.

We will be posting a post mortem, in depth analysis, but for the time being we would like to update the community as to how this happened.

— pancakebunny.finance (@PancakeBunnyFin) May 20, 2021

With so many vulnerabilities discovered in recent months, confidence in BSC has dropped. Government regulators in the U.K. and Italy have publicly warned consumers about the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies, specifically in reference to Binance.  

By launching its bug bounty program, Binance is seeking to avoid future exploits and restore its reputation. Additionally, increasing on-chain security will help as the exchange grapples with mounting regulatory pressure. 
Despite the controversies, the blockchain’s native BNB token has seen a significant rise in recent months. It’s up over 700% this year. 
Disclaimer: At the time of writing this feature, the author owned BTC and ETH.