The Chopping Block: Top White Hat Hacker Samczsun Discusses the State of Crypto Security - Ep. 579

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, they are joined by Samczsun, an anonymous security researcher at Paradigm, who delves into the intricacies of crypto security, ethical hacking and the shifting landscape of smart contract vulnerabilities. He also discusses his strong feelings about the “Code Is Law” philosophy and gives tips on how people in crypto can best protect their online security.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• what led Sam to a career in crypto security and his current role at Paradigm
• how Sam uncovered one of crypto's most legendary vulnerabilities
• why security experts like Sam choose the path of white hat hackers over black hats
• The craziness of the KyberSwap hacker's proposal
• parallels that Robert draws between this case and Avi Eisenberg's Mango Markets exploit
• what advice Sam has for the KyberSwap hacker
• whether Sam, as a security expert, trusts storing his money on-chain
• how the Platypus hack ruling by a French judge challenges the 'Code Is Law' philosophy
• what the Security Alliance aims to achieve and its impact on the industry
• how Sam suggests individuals should practice personal crypto security, including the importance of using password managers and hardware wallets, and avoiding SMS two-factor authentication

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound and Superstate
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly

Disclosures Guest: Samczsun, security researcher at Paradigm Links

Hacks

• Episode with Ogle: The Chopping Block: How This DeFi Hack Negotiator Gets Hackers to Return Stolen Money
• Unchained: $48 Million Drained from KyberSwap in Hack
• Kyberswap hacker's latest message
• Cointelegraph:
• KyberSwap hacker offers $4.6M bounty for return of $46M loot
• Platypus exploiters walk free after claiming to be ‘ethical hackers’

Code is law:

• The Chopping Block: ‘Code Is Law’ Is ‘Obviously Not How Anything Works Ever’
• Unchained: The Mango Markets Attacker on Whether His 'Trade' Was Ethical or Not
• Thread by Gabriel Shapiro on the topic and Vy Le’s response