Solana flooded with AI notifications: new rules introduced
Solana developers now charge researchers 1 SOL to report security bugs. For example, they want to limit the flow of AI notifications.
From now on, researchers who discover security issues in Solana's Firedancer software will have to pay to report them. The developers are introducing a fee of 1 SOL, currently about $100. With this, they want to reduce the enormous amount of reports that are made with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).
Firedancer is software that allows computers to monitor and process transactions on the Solana (SOL)network. The program was developed by trading company Jump Crypto as an alternative to Agave, the main software used for this purpose.
During a security competition between 9 April and 9 May, no fewer than 809 reports were received from 162 researchers. This resulted in 127 unique security issues. Almost half of the valid reports turned out to be double.
According to Jump Crypto, AI played a major role in this. AI allows researchers to detect potential vulnerabilities more quickly, but developers still need to check whether those problems actually exist.
At the busiest time, 299 notifications were open. As a result, it took longer for real security issues to be investigated and resolved.
During the competition, $100 per report was already requested. Participants were also allowed to submit a maximum of one report per day.
The new rules took effect on Monday, 26 October. Researchers must now destroy 1 SOL before their report is eligible for a reward.
Those coins disappear permanently from circulation. Even if a report turns out to be incorrect or describes a previously discovered problem, researchers do not get their SOL back.
At the same time, Jump Crypto increases the rewards for valuable discoveries. Until November 20, researchers will receive double the usual fee.
Vulnerabilities in Alpenglow, the new system with which Solana confirms transactions, are even tripled. Serious mistakes can result in a reward of up to $300,000.
Among other things, the previous security contest uncovered an issue that allowed Firedancer to execute transactions in the wrong order. This could lead to computers within the Solana network not agreeing on the correct balances.