---
title: "Audit contests"
description: "Audit contests: Crowdsourced review. Layer: Whole scope. Characteristic finds: The long tail after targeted review; findings quick to demonstrate."
type: "option"
url: "https://zkpick.com/audit/audit-contests/"
section: "03 Auditing a ZK protocol"
authors:
  - "MarketComp"
publisher: "MarketComp"
version: "1.3"
updated: "2026-09-12"
license: "CC-BY-4.0"
json: "https://zkpick.com/data/audit/audit-contests.json"
---

*By MarketComp. Updated 2026-09-12. Version 1.3. CC BY 4.0.*

# Audit contests — *Crowdsourced review*

> Audit contests: Crowdsourced review. Layer: Whole scope. Characteristic finds: The long tail after targeted review; findings quick to demonstrate. Blind to: Deep cryptographic soundness work, which is under-rewarded relative to its cost. Coverage claim: None; no accountable party. Cost profile: Fixed pool, pay-for-results. Choose it when: A complement after at least one targeted review and after internal tooling is clean. Weak substitute for a cryptography review of a novel proof system.

A fixed prize pool distributed among independent researchers reviewing a pinned scope over a bounded window, weighted by severity and duplicate-adjusted. Public zkVM and circuit scopes have run in this format, with pool rules varying on whether low-severity findings are paid at all.

**Strengths**

- Wide reviewer diversity, uncorrelated with any single firm's blind spots
- Pay-for-results rather than pay-for-time
- Effective at the long tail once targeted review has covered the core
- Public scope and public results improve transparency for integrators

**Tradeoffs**

- Depth is uneven: incentives favour findings quick to demonstrate, under-rewarding deep soundness work
- The pool who can read constraint systems is far smaller than the general Solidity pool, so real coverage can be thin despite many participants
- Duplicate mechanics and severity floors distort effort allocation
- Substantial triage load on the sponsoring team
- No accountable party, no methodology statement, no coverage claim

**Choose it when:** A complement after at least one targeted review and after internal tooling is clean. Weak substitute for a cryptography review of a novel proof system.

Maturity: Production-used for ZK scopes · License: Platform · Source: https://cantina.xyz/competitions/c486d600-bed0-4fc6-aed1-de759fd29fa2

**In the what each assurance technique can and cannot find** (https://zkpick.com/audit/#audit-matrix-audit-contest)

| Technique | Layer | Characteristic finds | Blind to | Coverage claim | Cost profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Audit contest | Whole scope | The long tail after targeted review; findings quick to demonstrate | Deep cryptographic soundness work, which is under-rewarded relative to its cost | None; no accountable party | Fixed pool, pay-for-results |