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Avantis, a leading fully on-chain perpetual exchange offering cross-asset leverage trading, needed robust security monitoring before their mainnet launch. The Avantis team is highly technical but did not yet have an in-house security engineer. As a result, they partnered with Guardrail to implement smart contract monitoring and threat detection. This partnership has:
- Saved significant engineering hours
- Formalized their security processes
- Positioned Avantis to benefit from Guardrail's roadmap of predictive threat detection capabilities
The Challenge
As a rapidly growing DEX offering leverage trading across crypto, forex, metals, and commodities, Avantis faced significant security challenges before their January 2024 mainnet launch.
Their platform manages substantial value flow between traders seeking leverage and liquidity providers supplying funds, making security monitoring critical.
Before Guardrail, Avantis relied on basic, manual monitoring systems they created in-house:
- Simple contract monitoring with basic Slack alerts
- Manual tracking of suspicious transactions
- No dedicated security-focused engineers
- Limited ability to detect threats proactively
With mainnet launch approaching, Avantis needed a more robust security solution but lacked specialized security engineers.
The Solution
Avantis integrated Guardrail's platform in December 2023, just prior to their mainnet launch. The implementation provided:
Key features implemented:
- Smart contract invariant monitoring
- Suspicious activity detection for traders and transactions
- Slack and PagerDuty integrations for real-time alerts
- Formalized security processes
- Alert systems for suspicious profit patterns
Customizations made:
- Custom guard development support to Avantis' platform
- Development of custom guards specific contract invariants
- Support for monitoring various smart
Integration process:
The integration process was smooth and quick, happening during the busy holiday season.
"We happened to integrate pretty quickly. This is a team that I can rely on. They were very quick to reply to us."
Sehaj Singh, Founder at Avantis
Results
Implementing Guardrail has delivered several quantifiable benefits for Avantis:
Engineering time saved
"Whenever we have to integrate a new guard, we don't have to let our engineer work on it. You guys can do it for us."
Enhanced security coverage
- Formalized monitoring across the platform
Operational efficiency
- Integration with existing tools like Slack and PagerDuty
Security without dedicated resources
"We don't have a security-focused engineer. Guardrail is our security engineer on the contract side."
Support responsiveness
"Working with a security vendor, how good is support? It really matters a lot."
Key benefits
Expert security without hiring
- Functions as an extension of the Avantis engineering team
Time-saving automation
- Eliminates manual monitoring tasks and alert creation
Future-proofed security
- Access to Guardrail's growing roadmap of predictive capabilities
Fast implementation
- Quick setup before critical mainnet launch
Trusted relationship
- Founded on mutual understanding and responsiveness
Looking ahead
Avantis is excited about Guardrail's roadmap for more predictive capabilities. They specifically look forward to:
Proactive threat identification based on patterns
"We'd want a lot more predictive stuff, like 'this trader will close this position in a profit soon, and it's only been 30 seconds, look into it.'"
Intelligent false positive scoring
"Based on past instances we've dealt with and how we've resolved them, you guys can look at what is a false positive, with a score, so engineers can utilize that better."
Security education
"A simple, easy-to-understand security newsletter... timely updates on all things security as it pertains to fully on-chain builders."
As Avantis continues to grow as one of the biggest real-world asset (RWA) leverage DEXes in DeFi, their partnership with Guardrail will strengthen through enhanced predictive monitoring and tailored security solutions.
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