Network

【Network Introduction】Forta Network

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Network Detail

Brief Introduction

Forta is a real-time detection network for security & operational monitoring of blockchain activity. It provides relevant alerts so protocols and investors are able to react quickly to neutralize threats and prevent or minimize loss of funds. Forta monitors over $30 billion in TVL from its users. Projects like Lido, Maker and Compound, among others are already using Forta to monitor their smart contracts.

Heart

The heart of Forta, Brener explained, is a community of “agent writers,” or developers creating pieces of code that hunt up threats — on layer-one or -two chains, and side chains — that fall into one of four main buckets of risk, namely cybersecurity, financial, operational or governance. The other half of the Forta project is nodes, or essentially what runs the agents themselves.

History

  • Forta was incubated inside of Open Zeppelin in 2021, with the idea of generating a decentralized monitoring solution that could address Web3’s evolving risks.
  • In July 2021 Forta successfully had a $23 million round led by a16z and backed by other notable firms such as Blockchain Capital and Coinbase Ventures, among others.
  • Forta launched in September of 2021.
  • Since then, the community deployed more than 650 detection bots, which are constantly monitoring security and operational activity. The network features more than 2,000 nodes that scan transactions across 7 different L1 and L2s.

Community

WebsiteTwitterDiscordBlogGithubFacebookGithubNewsletterExplorer

Supported Chains

The future is multi-chain. That is why Forta continues to expand into the emerging landscape of new L1s and L2s, bringing runtime monitoring and anomaly detection to Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, BNB Chain, Fantom, Arbitrum, and Optimism.

Service

Forta detects threats and anomalies on DeFi, NFT, governance, bridges and other Web3 systems in real-time. Given timely and relevant alerts about the security and health of owned or dependent systems.

Why Forta

As the Web3 economy grows in value and complexity, security has become increasingly critical. More than $1 billion was lost in the first quarter of 2022 due to hacks and exploits, some of which have only been discovered several days after the attack happened. The need for real-time security and operational monitoring has become clear, allowing protocols and investors to react quickly to neutralize threats and prevent or minimize loss of funds. However, the rapid speed at which the Web3 industry develops makes it hard for a centralized entity to watch it all. That’s where Forta comes in.

How to get started Forta

  • You can subscribe to the Forta data feeds through a variety of applications, including the Forta App, OpenZeppelin Defender, or directly by using the public Forta API.
  • You can develop and deploy your own detection bots on Forta using the SDK. There are many templates and examples you can work from. There are also a growing number of development teams who you can hire to develop Forta bots for your project (visit the Bot Development Marketplace or contact the Forta Foundation at [email protected] for more information).
  • If you are an independent dev that wants to develop detection bots, you can visit Forta’s Bot Development Marketplace to discover RFPs, apply for Grants or participate in Forta Development Contests, which are announced in the Forta Discord.

Partners

Forta is backed by world class partners.

Funding

Blockchain cybersecurity startup OpenZeppelin this morning announced a $23 million investment in Forta, a security service aimed at smart contracts. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, which OpenZeppelin CEO and co-founder Demian Brener described as 3x oversubscribed. The investment also attracted capital from Coinbase Ventures, True Ventures and Blockchain Capital, among others. Furthermore, Per Brener, OpenZeppelin will retain a stake in Forta.

Technolgy

Core-Github Homepage

Developer Docs

Main Components

Detection Bots

Detection bots refer to a set of code scripts within a Docker container that process some blockchain data (i.e. a block or transaction) and detect specific threat conditions (e.g. whether a flash loan attack occurred, or whether a particular account balance fell below some threshold). Bots emit alerts for their findings. Bots are executed by scan nodes. To learn more about bots, see our FAQ section.

Scan Nodes

A scan node is a specific type of Forta node that executes detection bots for every transaction and every new block on a specific blockchain network. The scan node manages and coordinates bots (e.g. by instantiating and running bots, and restarting bots that become unresponsive). The scan node ferries blockchain data to bots to process the transaction/block. To learn more about scan nodes, see our FAQ section.

Audits

The Forta Protocol Audit found 38 issues of which all have been resolved. None were critical, one was high severity with the remaining medium, low and advisory issues.

It is worth noting OpenZeppelin security conducted this audit with Open Zeppelin owning 10% of Fort tokens there is a potential conflict of interest though arguably they also are incentivised to ensure the protocol has no issues.

Token Economics

Basic Information

Token: FORT

Token Type: ERC-20

Token Uses: Work, Vote

Address (Ethereum): 0x41545f8b9472D758bB669ed8EaEEEcD7a9C4Ec29

Price

As of 24/06/2022, refer from Coingecko.

Token Function

The FORT token is a utility and governance token. It can be used in the following ways:

Node Runner Staking.

Node runners must deposit FORT Tokens to provide economic security for the work they are performing, since the staked FORT can be slashed if a node fails to execute their assigned work or performs their work maliciously. Once FORT is staked, it may only be withdrawn subject to a thawing period, which provides ample opportunity for verification and dispute resolution.

Detection Bot Signaling.

Developers may stake FORT Tokens on Detection Bots, signaling Detection Bot quality to the Network and also providing a Sybil resistance mechanism. Having fake or low quality Detection Bots on the Network makes it harder to find the best detection offerings. Detection Bots with higher signal will also be afforded additional node resources to increase security, reliability, and performance.

Launch & Initial Token Distribution

The FORT token was initially allocated as follows:

  • 45.5% — Community
  • 24.5% — Backers
  • 20.0% — Initial Core Contributors
  • 10.0% — OpenZeppelin.

The public airdrop of the FORT token was announced in June 2022 for approximately 4% of the total supply.

Supply Schedule

General Emission Type: Fixed Supply

Precise Emission Type: Fixed Supply

Capped Supply: Yes

Forta is currently allocated between four categories as detailed below:

  • Community (45.5%) — No vesting period, bulk of this remains unallocated pending constructive purpose of the tokens.
  • Backers (24.5%) — 4-year linear vesting with a 1-year cliff from the 1st September, 2021.
  • Initial Core Contributors (20%) — 4-year linear vesting from the 1st September, 2021.
  • Open Zeppelin (10%) — 4-year linear vesting from the 1st September, 2021.

More details and descriptions can be checked here.

Airdrop

The FORT Airdrop rewards early Forta contributors and seeds the broader Web3 security community with FORT tokens so they can begin building on the Forta Network. 26,769 addresses are eligible to claim FORT Tokens in the Forta Airdrop. If you’ve used Forta, contributed to a Web3 project or are an active participant in the Web3 ecosystem, you may be eligible.

Each category and subcategory is discrete and cumulative i.e. an address can be eligible for multiple categories and allocated a sum of tokens for each accordingly. The allocation and criteria are broken down as follows:

Forta Airdrop Allocation

Forta Users

Forta Users, in the context of the airdrop, are those who have contributed to the Network from day one, including, but not limited to, Detection Bot developers, community members who participated in Detection Bot development contests, Alert subscribers, and Forta Scan Node runners.

Detection Bot Developers

Detection Bot developers represent a critical aspect of the Network by building novel and clever ways to monitor blockchain activity. Thanks to their ideas identifying needs and leveraging their unique skills for development, a wide range of security and operational activities are now being monitored by the Forta Network.

Alert Subscribers

This group selects early adopters who started using Forta by subscribing to alerts on the Forta Network.

Node Runners

Node runners are crucial to the Network’s security and growth by operating the infrastructure that scans transactions and emits alerts. These early community members played a key role in hardening, stress-testing, and scaling Forta.

Forta Contributors

Forta Contributors are ambassadors and thought leaders who are strong proponents of Forta’s mission and have contributed to the development and advancement of the network in a meaningful way.

Web3 Github Contributors

This group includes developers who actively contributed to over 900 Web3 Github repositories. This list comprises Web3 libraries, public goods, and top projects that are vital to the Forta ecosystem. Thousands of people worked to build and maintain these projects over the years, some even working completely for free in an effort to create a better and safer decentralized economy.

Ethernaut Players

Ethernaut is an open source foundational learning tool teaching thousands of developers the basics of smart contract security. Fans of Ethernaut have gone on to build and audit protocols, securing billions in TVL by incorporating the critical security concepts introduced in Ethernaut.

Web3 Coders

Inspired by Project Galaxy’s initiative to support innovative developers, top developers in the Ethereum ecosystem are eligible for the FORT Airdrop. These are defined as coders who deployed smart contracts with the most active interactions.

Subgraph Developers

The Graph Protocol subgraph developers are valuable contributors to Web3, facilitating access to blockchain data for decentralized applications on Ethereum.

Multisig Signers

Multisig signers can be key decision-makers, DAO leaders, and/or builders that have access to large pools of assets or control over critical protocol functions.

Governance

The decentralized architecture of the Forta Network supports its growing community of node operators, detection bot developers and the ecosystem built on top. The vision of Forta posits that only a community-based platform will be powerful enough to address the rapidly evolving risk landscape on blockchains, where every new smart contract deployed introduces novel risk vectors that could affect thousands of interconnected protocols and millions of users.

Forta Foundation

The Forta Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization (the “Foundation”) that holds certain assets (e.g. public and open source IP, Github repos, and FORT tokens) in the Network and will facilitate governance of Forta by its community members. To further decentralized governance over Forta, the Foundation introduced a community governance framework with two primary components:

  • Forta Proposal Process — a formal, yet flexible framework designed for the community to self-organize and advance proposals and signal support by FORT token holder voting; and
  • Forta Governance Council — decision making authority was delegated by the community to an initial council of representatives elected by FORT token holders, always allowing the community to provide input and share sentiment through the Forta Proposal Process.

Community

Forta’s initial community governance is simple by design, shaped by key learnings from the current state of Web3 governance:

  • Complex governance systems can lead to voter fatigue and voter apathy
  • Radical democracy invites plutocracy and it takes time for tokens to become widely dispersed amongst a network’s users
  • Governance should be flexible enough to meet the unique needs of each community, as such needs emerge
  • The stakeholders of a network like Forta extend outside of token holders and should be represented
  • Proposals to alter the protocol should be public and permissionless and decision makers should be accountable to the community
  • Governance should minimize over time as the protocol hardens

The initial community governance framework should allow anyone to easily participate in shaping the evolution of Forta, allowing the Network to evolve naturally over time. It should also maintain the security and robustness of the Network needed for Forta to further its mission to monitor all transactions and protect all assets in Web3.

Forta Governance Council

The Council’s mission is to steward the continued evolution of the Forta Network by facilitating the collective action of its community. The initial council is a group of early Forta community members and ecosystem experts, elected by FORT token holder vote.

The Council reduces the need for individual voters to actively participate in every single governance matter. This saves an individual’s attention for when it really matters, mitigating the risk of community members feeling voter fatigue and apathy. Importantly, any community member can always share sentiment, make proposals, and/or signal support by voting with FORT tokens in the Forta Proposal Process on changes and issues that are important to them. This doesn’t preclude any other forms of community participation, including direct outreach to other members of the community or to the Council directly.

The Council Bylaws set out the Council governance authority and responsibilities, which in short allow the Council to:

  • Support initiatives that contribute to the growth and sustainability of Forta
  • Facilitate the development of features and changes in the Network, or adjacent products and services
  • Enable Forta security programs to ensure the long-term security of the Network and security procedures so Forta can react to potential vulnerabilities
  • Educate the Web3 ecosystem about the importance of decentralized runtime security and advocate for the vision of Forta and the decentralized web
  • Attract and retain node runners, bot developers, core developers and other community members through community-building and marketing initiatives
  • Carry out actions that would otherwise further the Council’s mission

The Council generally may exercise its authority under the Bylaws on a majority vote basis, although appointment or removal of other council members requires a two-thirds majority vote. If Council members do not stay aligned with the community and represent their interests well, the community may lobby the Council to remove a council member, through an FPP proposal or directly; The Council also holds admin signing privileges on the Forta multi-signature wallets on a majority M-of-N basis, as well as authority over any Foundation custodial accounts.

The Council should help reduce the real problems that would be created by a more complex governance system introduced at the outset that requires FORT token holders voting on every single issue. An initial governance council should reduce the attention-taxing process of FORT holders needing to keep up with an ever-changing system, which provides them more time and attention that can be used to provide value in the Forta Network, furthering its mission to monitor all transactions and protect all assets in Web3.

Forta Proposal Process (FPP)

The goal of the Forta Proposal Process (or FPP) is to create a more formal public framework to empower the growing Forta community to contribute to the evolution of the Forta Network and its ecosystem. The Forta Forum was created as a public space for all things Forta governance, where the community can have considered, long-form discussions, share best practices, and shape ideas for the future of the Network and the underlying protocol. The FPP will live in the Forum, where you can read about the framework in detail.

The FPP is simple, but defines a clear path for community members to champion a given idea for the Forta ecosystem. It also provides the Council a way to gauge the viability and community support for a proposal by way of FORT token holder voting on Snapshot. Like other governance processes in the decentralized ecosystem, the FPP process is only a starting point and is expected to evolve over time.

The FPP is divided into four distinct phases, but it is not a rigid framework that must be strictly followed in order for a proposal to be implemented. Rather, the FPP is a suggested workflow for community proposals. To contribute to Forta, anyone can rally the community or lobby the Council at any time and in the way they find most effective.

Within the FPP, Phase 3 or the “Community Vote” is the most consequential phase, because if a proposal successfully passes this phase, then the Council must deliberate and decide on whether or not to implement the respective proposal. In the beginning, successful Community Votes will be persuasive but not strictly binding on the Council. This allows the Council to act as a check and balance on whether a community proposal is in the best interests of Forta, until the community matures and strengthens its governance muscles over time.

Validator

The following are the requirements for running a Forta scan node.

  • 64-bit Linux distribution
  • CPU with 4+ cores
  • 16GB RAM
  • Connection to Internet
  • Docker v20.10+
  • 100GB SSD (in addition to full node requirements)
  • Recommended: Full node (any chain)

Set up docsRegister Scan NodeStake FORTRun Scan NodeScanning other chains

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About BlockPower

Our Staking Services

Why Choose Us to Manage Your Assets

  1. We have started 7/24 staking services since 2018, and have managed over $100 million assets.
  2. We run highly available and redundant nodes in different data centers to achieve continuous operations.
  3. We are actively participating in community and governance, disclosing information frequently.

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