Blog · Smart Contracts

Smart Contracts deep-dives.

42 articles on Smart Contracts — how it works under the hood and how we build it.

Smart Contracts
Jul 16, 2026·5 min read

TON Smart Contract Audit: What Auditors Check in FunC/Tact

A TON smart contract audit checklist: bounced message handling, cross-hop gas accounting, and TEP-74/62 compliance in FunC and Tact.

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Smart Contracts
Jul 13, 2026·6 min read

Smart Contract Audit Cost in 2026: EVM, Solana and TON Pricing

Smart contract audit cost breakdown for 2026: real EVM, Solana and TON pricing tiers from $8k, and what drives quotes up or down.

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Smart Contracts
Jul 10, 2026·6 min read

Do You Need a Smart Contract Audit Before Mainnet Launch?

Do I need a smart contract audit? Score TVL at risk, admin keys, and mechanism novelty to decide before mainnet.

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Smart Contracts
Jul 8, 2026·6 min read

What a Smart Contract Audit Actually Checks, Step by Step

What does a smart contract audit check? Slither and Echidna passes, manual invariant review, access control, and upgrade paths, explained.

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Smart Contracts
Jul 5, 2026·6 min read

How to Vet a Smart Contract Auditor Before You Pay

How to choose a smart contract auditor: check past reports, tooling stack, certificate authenticity, and realistic timelines before paying.

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Smart Contracts
Jul 2, 2026·6 min read

Common Jetton Contract Bugs on TON (and How Audits Catch Them)

Article on common jetton contract bugs on TON for TierZero blog, returned as structured JSON.

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Smart Contracts
Jun 29, 2026·6 min read

TON Contract Security Pitfalls: Bounces, Gas and Replay

TON smart contract security breaks EVM habits: async bounces, mid-execution gas death, and replay attacks need TVM-native fixes.

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Smart Contracts
Jun 26, 2026·6 min read

After the Audit: Remediation and Re-Verification Explained

What post audit remediation actually involves: the fix-verify-certify loop, why re-verification catches regressions, and what the final report means.

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Smart Contracts
Jun 23, 2026·6 min read

EVM Smart Contract Audit Checklist: Foundry to Certora

An EVM smart contract audit checklist covering Foundry fuzzing, Slither static analysis, and Certora formal verification for critical invariants.

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Smart Contracts
Jun 20, 2026·5 min read

Independent Auditor vs In-House Review: What's Enough?

Independent smart contract auditor vs in-house review: what investors and exchanges require, real cost/turnaround tradeoffs, and when in-house is enough.

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Smart Contracts
Jun 17, 2026·6 min read

What a Smart Contract Audit Certificate Actually Proves

What a smart contract audit certificate really covers: commit hash, scope, and findings — and what "audited" can't guarantee.

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Smart Contracts
Jun 14, 2026·6 min read

Tact vs FunC: Which Is Safer to Audit on TON?

Tact vs FunC security compared: which TON contract language cuts audit bug surface, and which one just moves the risk to the compiler.

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Smart Contracts
May 22, 2026·5 min read

Best Rust Libraries for Solana Program Development in 2025

Beyond Anchor itself, libraries like bytemuck for zero-copy account parsing, fixed for deterministic decimal math, and spl-math for overflow-safe operations can cut compute costs and audit surface significantly — this ranked guide covers real-world usage patterns, maintenance status, and when to reach for each in an HFT program.

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Smart Contracts
May 10, 2026·4 min read

CPI Into OpenBook V2 From an Anchor Program

Cross-Program Invocation lets your settlement program call OpenBook V2 order-placement instructions atomically without a client round-trip. This tutorial walks through building the CPI call, passing the correct account metas, and handling error propagation safely.

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Smart Contracts
May 7, 2026·5 min read

Writing a Solidity Adapter for Polymarket CTF Positions

Polymarket's Conditional Token Framework uses ERC-1155 position tokens redeemable after resolution. This tutorial shows how to write a thin Solidity adapter contract that lets your EVM bot batch-buy, split, and redeem outcome tokens in a single transaction.

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Smart Contracts
May 2, 2026·5 min read

How Much Does a Solana Program Audit Cost for an HFT Studio?

Audit quotes range from 5 to 50 SOL-equivalent per line of Rust depending on the auditor and scope. We break down what OtterSec, Neodyme, and Mad Shield charge, what deliverables to expect, and how to scope an engagement for a trading vault under 2,000 lines.

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Smart Contracts
Apr 16, 2026·6 min read

Cross-Program Invocation Reentrancy Risk in Solana DeFi

CPI does not have EVM-style reentrancy, but recursive CPI chains and sysvar manipulation open distinct attack surfaces — this post maps every known CPI exploit pattern and shows the Anchor constraints that close them. Essential reading before you audit a program that calls AMM pools mid-instruction.

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Smart Contracts
Apr 13, 2026·6 min read

Solana Compute Budget Optimization for Trading Bot Programs

A concrete guide to setting ComputeBudgetProgram instructions, profiling CU consumption with solana-measure, and restructuring account iteration to keep complex arbitrage instructions inside the 1.4 M CU ceiling. Includes before/after benchmarks from a real Hyperliquid bridging program.

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Smart Contracts
Apr 4, 2026·5 min read

Upgradeable Solana Programs: BPF Loader Risks and Patterns

Anchor's upgradeable BPF loader lets you ship hotfixes without migrating accounts, but the upgrade authority is a single point of compromise. Learn how to use multisig upgrade authority, time-locks, and governance gates to keep live trading programs safe.

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Smart Contracts
Apr 3, 2026·5 min read

Hyperliquid On-Chain Settlement: Contract Architecture Deep-Dive

Hyperliquid's L1 moves settlement logic into custom contracts rather than off-chain matchbooks. This article maps the settlement flow, explains how liquidation vaults are funded, and shows what bots must watch for when closing positions programmatically.

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Smart Contracts
Apr 1, 2026·6 min read

Jito Bundles vs Public Mempool: Solana MEV Protection Explained

Jito bundles vs public mempool on Solana: atomic execution, tip auctions, and when a trading bot actually needs bundle logic for MEV protection.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 30, 2026·6 min read

Polymarket's UMA Oracle vs Chainlink: How Markets Resolve

UMA optimistic oracle vs Chainlink: how bond-and-dispute resolution differs from push feeds, and which to use for event outcomes vs price data.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 29, 2026·6 min read

HyperCore vs HyperEVM: Hyperliquid's Dual Architecture Explained

HyperCore vs HyperEVM: how Hyperliquid splits order-book execution from EVM contracts, and which layer to build on for your use case.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 28, 2026·6 min read

Foundry vs Hardhat in 2026: Which Toolchain for Contract Audits

Foundry vs Hardhat for audit-grade testing: why fuzzing-first Foundry workflows surface bugs static Hardhat suites miss, and when Hardhat still wins.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 27, 2026·7 min read

TON's Asynchronous Contracts vs EVM: Why Bugs Look Different

TON's async actor model vs EVM's synchronous call stack: why TON smart contracts trade reentrancy bugs for race conditions auditors must hunt manually.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 23, 2026·6 min read

Anchor PDA Seed Design for Multi-Vault Trading Programs

A practical guide to anchor pda seed design: choosing seeds and canonical bumps so one trading program hosts thousands of isolated vaults without collisions.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 22, 2026·6 min read

Address Lookup Tables: Fitting 20-Leg Arbs in One Solana Tx

A practical guide to solana address lookup tables: build, extend, and warm ALTs so a 20-leg Jupiter/Meteora arb fits under the 1232-byte v0 tx limit.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 21, 2026·6 min read

Zero-Copy Anchor Accounts for Large On-Chain Orderbooks

Hold multi-kilobyte orderbooks on-chain without stack overflows using anchor zero copy accounts, bytemuck casting, and safe realloc patterns for Solana programs.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 20, 2026·7 min read

Solidity Permit2 Gasless Approvals for an EVM Sniping Bot

Build a router with permit2 smart contract integration so your EVM sniping bot swaps in one tx — no separate approve, a full block of latency and gas cut.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 19, 2026·6 min read

Formal Verification of a Solana Trading Program with Certora

A hands-on guide to Solana formal verification: writing invariants and running Certora-style symbolic checks on a settlement program to prove no-fund-loss properties audits miss.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 17, 2026·7 min read

Squads Multisig Timelocks for Live Trading Program Upgrades

A concrete Squads v4 setup for a squads multisig upgrade authority: timelock gating, deterministic buffer verification, and a guardian break-glass pause for live trading programs.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 8, 2026·5 min read

Custom On-Chain Settlement Program vs. SDK: Is It Worth It?

An off-the-shelf SDK like Drift's TypeScript client gets you live in days, but a custom settlement program shaves latency, enables atomic multi-leg execution, and lets you own upgrade decisions. We lay out the cost, risk, and performance trade-offs for trading studios.

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Smart Contracts
Mar 8, 2026·6 min read

Flash-Loan Arbitrage in a Single Solana Program Atomic Bundle

Solana does not have native flash loans, but you can replicate the pattern using same-transaction CPI sequences across Marginfi and Kamino. This guide shows how to structure the borrow, swap, and repay CPIs inside one Anchor instruction to guarantee atomicity.

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Smart Contracts
Jan 16, 2026·5 min read

Compute Unit Budgeting for Solana HFT Programs

Every microsecond of compute you waste is a slot you lose. This guide breaks down how to request, measure, and trim compute units in Rust programs so your on-chain logic fits inside the 1.4 M CU limit without triggering ComputeBudgetExceeded errors.

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Smart Contracts
Jan 6, 2026·6 min read

Hyperliquid L1 Vault Contract Architecture for Prop-Trading Funds

Hyperliquid exposes a native vault primitive where funds deposit collateral and allocate to a leader strategy — this article dissects the on-chain settlement flow, margin accounting, and the Rust-based HIP-1 token interaction layer so prop desks can decide whether a custom vault or a sub-account structure fits their risk model better.

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Smart Contracts
Dec 24, 2025·5 min read

How Much Does a Solana Program Security Audit Cost in 2025?

Price ranges from OtterSec, Neodyme, Trail of Bits, and Halborn for Anchor programs vary by line count, CPI complexity, and turnaround — this breakdown gives founders a realistic budget framework and a checklist to reduce scope (and bill) before engaging an auditor. Includes red flags that add 30–50 % to quoted hours.

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Smart Contracts
Dec 15, 2025·5 min read

Writing a Solidity CTF Adapter for Polymarket Automated Market Making

Polymarket's Conditional Token Framework uses ERC-1155 outcome shares settled through a UMA oracle — this tutorial shows how to write a Solidity adapter contract that wraps CTF splits and merges so a bot can atomically rebalance Yes/No positions in a single transaction. Includes Hardhat fork tests against Polygon mainnet state.

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Smart Contracts
Nov 28, 2025·5 min read

Anchor Account Discriminators and Type-Confusion Attack Vectors

Anchor prefixes every account with an 8-byte discriminator to prevent type confusion, but misuse of unchecked account deserialization can still bypass it. See exactly how this exploit works and how to enforce discriminator validation in every instruction handler.

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Smart Contracts
Nov 22, 2025·5 min read

Best Rust Libraries for On-Chain Math in Solana Trading Programs

Floating-point is banned on-chain, so safe fixed-point arithmetic is essential for pricing, fee calculation, and PnL settlement. We benchmark fixed, uint, and spl-math against each other for precision and CU cost in real trading workloads.

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Smart Contracts
Nov 8, 2025·6 min read

Anchor PDA Design Patterns for HFT Settlement Vaults

Walk through battle-tested PDA seed schemes for on-chain vaults that settle high-frequency trades on Solana — covering signer authority, nonce accounts, and rent-exemption sizing. Learn how layout mistakes silently inflate compute costs and how to benchmark with solana-program-test.

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Smart Contracts
Oct 25, 2025·4 min read

Solana Program Security Audit Checklist for Trading Apps

Before you put real capital through a custom settlement program, you need to pass a security audit. This checklist covers signer-check bypasses, owner mismatches, arithmetic overflows, and re-entrancy vectors specific to DeFi trading programs.

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Smart Contracts
Oct 14, 2025·5 min read

Building Anchor PDA Vaults for Solana Trading Bots

Learn how to design and deploy a Program Derived Address vault using Anchor so your HFT bot can custody funds trustlessly on-chain. Covers seed derivation, bump canonicalization, and CPI-safe withdraw guards.

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