Common Prefix is seeking an Auditor with Blockchain Experience.

About us

Common Prefix is a blockchain consulting company. Blockchain technologies will empower a planetary-wide economic collaboration with efficient resource allocation in the near future, tracking capital, land, stock, government decisions, business and governmental contracts. In the path towards this mainstream adoption of a "world wide ledger", our mission is to solve the foundational scientific and engineering problems that stand in the way, in particular in the areas of interoperability, scalability, and usability. We are idealistic cryptographers who prove protocols secure using mathematics, and pragmatic engineers who implement protocols and take them to production, and we culminate the synergy between the two. We're a small team of 22 people, half scientists, half engineers, working with blockchain-first companies only, from L1 to L2 and DeFi protocols, among others Axelar, Espresso Systems, Mysten Labs, Celestia, Babylon, Flashbots, and Flare Networks among our customers, and multiple research grants from Ethereum Foundation. Beyond consulting, our engineering team is building core and foundational open source libraries and tooling to power the blockchain systems of tomorrow for the betterment of the community, focusing on Ethereum, Cosmos, and Bitcoin; and our research team is openly publishing papers in A* peer-reviewed scientific conferences and journals on all the foundational topics in the space, with the goal of getting performant protocols proven secure, cited, appreciated, implemented and deployed.

You can learn more about our company here.

Description

This is a full-time position for an Auditor with a strong background in blockchain technology and cryptography. You will play a crucial role in ensuring the security and correctness of our clients' blockchain protocols and cryptographic implementations.

We take pride in being one of the few firms in the blockchain space that specialize in performing cryptographic and protocol-level audits of blockchain protocols. The team currently consists of security researchers, cryptographers and engineers who perform audits and advisory with direct client contact.

Responsibilities

In this role, you will split your time between the following responsibilities as needed:

• Blockchain and cryptographic protocol security audits
  • Conduct thorough audits of protocol implementations, ensuring compliance with industry standards and best practices
  • Identify discrepancies or deviations in protocol implementations
  • Identify potential vulnerabilities arising from cryptographic implementations or inadequate engineering practices
  • Provide detailed audit reports with actionable recommendations for improving security
  • Stay current with the latest advancements in blockchain technology and cryptography to continuously improve audit practices
• Scientific communication
  • Regularly discuss with the scientific team to understand the security requirements of protocols
  • Learn from the scientific team on a regular basis by attending lectures, courses, or reading relevant academic papers
  • Keep the scientific team informed by teaching them about the engineering details in the audited project
  • Remain available for consulting the scientific team when they have engineering-specific questions for other projects
• Collaboration and Communication
  • Work closely with clients to understand their security requirements
  • Be the face of the company when communicating with clients on relevant calls when it comes to findings and recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • After sufficient onboarding, occasionally take a leadership role and take ownership of projects to ensure the timely delivery to clients

Requirements

The requirements for this position are:

• Desire to break things with a strong fundamental understanding of computer science
• Familiarity with high-quality technical sources such as EIPs
• Familiarity with one or more of the following programming languages: Solidity, Rust, or Go
• Some proven track record in blockchain technology such as the deployment of Solidity smart contracts on Ethereum, Bitcoin Script on Bitcoin, Cardano, Algorand, or other blockchains
• Experience with Layer 2 solutions, Rollups, and DeFi protocols
• Hands-on experience with smart contract design patterns and best practices for blockchain security