A Solana developer who was rewarded with 100K Solana tokens last two years for identifying and reporting a bug in the network has just cashed out $1.5 million. This individual earned this prize from Solana’s bug bounty program for his contribution to the blockchain.
What is the Solana Bug Bounty Program?
In an attempt to ensure the network’s robustness and security, the Solana Foundation has a bug bounty program for hackers who can uncover vulnerabilities such as theft of funds without user signatures, unauthorized fund transfers, or vote program exploits that drain delegated stakes in the network.
The bounty program has different categories including DoS attacks, loss of funds, consensus /safety violations, and liveness/loss of availability. The rewards range from $100,000 to $400,000. It is worth noting that the reward is paid in SOL tokens with a lockup period of 12 months. Additionally, there is a well-defined process for reporting, reviewing, and addressing the security issues.
Acknowledging that their network is not immune to attacks, Solana said that this program was designed to actively encourage white hat hackers to scrutinize the blockchain for vulnerabilities, and therefore proactively address any issues that might arise.
The Developer’s Reward
Taking to X (formerly Twitter) in December 2022, the developer disclosed a 100K bounty reward he got from the Solana network for executing a denial of service (DoS) attack against the network.
In an update today, the developer revealed he has unlocked the bounty after the 12-month vested period. His reward of 100K SOL currently sits at $1.5 million.
However, this is not the first time a bug bounty reward has been given to someone for identifying a bug in a network. In 2022, Port Finance, a Solana-based lending protocol, paid out a $630,000 bounty to a white hat hacker for his contribution to preventing a potential $25 million vulnerability from the platform,
The Solana bounty program aimed at identifying and rectifying potential security threats reflects the network’s continuous effort to uphold integrity and ensure a secure blockchain environment for its users and developers.
Meanwhile, Solana (SOl) trades at $104.86 at press time, representing a slight 0.12% decrease in the last 24 hours.
