Ethereum is poised to inaugurate its inaugural hackathon ‘Attackathon’, with an impressive reward pool of $2 million, aiming to conduct the largest crowdsourced security audit of the blockchain’s codebase.

Dubbed the “Attackathon,” this event invites security researchers to meticulously unearth vulnerabilities in the protocol’s code during a four-week, time-constrained audit challenge, as elucidated by the Ethereum Protocol Security (EPS) research team.

“Participants will adhere to stringent rules set forth for the competition, and only substantial, rule-compliant reports will be rewarded,” the team noted.

The event will commence with an in-depth technical walkthrough of the blockchain’s code to ensure participants are well-equipped to identify and comprehend potential vulnerabilities.

Read more: $1 Million Bug Bounty Program for Solana’s ‘Firedancer’ Client Kicks Off July 10

Upon the event’s conclusion, Immunefi, the bug bounty platform hosting the event, will collate the findings and compile a report detailing the discovered vulnerabilities. The EPS team envisions hosting similar hackathons with each hard fork to cover changes to the codebase.

Ethereum’s forthcoming “Pectra” hard fork, anticipated to launch in late 2024 or early 2025, will amalgamate the “Prague” and “Electra” upgrades. These major updates include a “social recovery” feature designed to obviate the need to remember the up to 24-word private wallet key, a hallmark of the technology since its inception, and endow wallets with smart contract-like features.

Hackathons are a staple in the tech ecosystem, and the crypto sphere has seen its share of these events, with various blockchains and projects hosting similar hacking sprints.

Crypto projects frequently offer bug bounties to incentivize hackers to disclose their exploits rather than exploit them maliciously. Immunefi’s website lists most bounties in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, with the largest reward, offered by LayerZero, reaching $15 million.

By launching this “Attackathon,” Ethereum underscores its commitment to fortifying its protocol’s security, inviting the global community of security researchers to contribute to a safer, more robust blockchain ecosystem.