The security startup has come out from stealth mode having raised $8.2 million of seed funding

Cube3.ai, a crypto currency-centred security startup that safeguards smart contracts by blocking malicious transactions, has come out from stealth mode having raised $8.2 million of seed funding.

The seed round was led by Blockchange Ventures with participation from Dispersion Capital, Symbolic Capital, Hypersphere Ventures, ICLUB and TA Ventures.

Recurring attacks on public blockchain-based systems and decentralized finance (DeFi) have earned the sector a reputation as a playground for hackers and cyber criminals, where the financial incentives for bad actors are usually much higher than in the present, so-called Web2 world.

When there is a rush of innovation, typically a wave of crime comes with it, which is what prompted Cube3.ai founder and Chief Executive Officer Einaras Gravrock, a seasoned builder of Web2 security platforms, to go past essentials such as manual code audits and post-attack alerts to create a system that checks crypto transactions in real time.

Cube3.ai uses machine learning and pattern matching to give newly deployed smart contracts a risk score. Criminals repeatedly deploy new contracts from new wallets that moments later may propose a malicious transaction against a target contract. This leaves only a short window to assess new contracts for malicious intent, he added.

On behalf of our clients, we equip decentralized applications and smart contracts to recognise exploits, and then to turn down exploits as they are being proposed, he said in an interview with CoinDesk. He added that it means contracts and applications can carry on processing permitted transactions, so it is a bit like a guardian angel is watching over your contract.