Crypto Security Pioneer: 'I Now Consider All of DeFi Unsafe' (gizmodo.com)

Manuel Aráoz, co-founder of OpenZeppelin and a notable figure in smart contract auditing, has declared the entire decentralized finance (DeFi) sector unsafe due to increasing security incidents. Following a surge of hacks, including one that exploited a long-standing smart contract vulnerability to steal $120 million, Aráoz advises friends and family to withdraw from DeFi positions, even those considered "blue chip" like Aave and MakerDAO. He attributes the heightened risk to advancements in artificial intelligence, particularly coding agents that are adept at identifying vulnerabilities within smart contracts, which makes the balance of security significantly favoring attackers. The growing capability of AI, exemplified by Anthropic’s Mythos model, presents both challenges and opportunities for the DeFi space. While Aráoz warns that the asymmetric nature of security—where defenders must fix all bugs while attackers only need to exploit one—renders the landscape perilous, others in the industry argue that AI can similarly bolster defenses. Some propose implementing stricter safeguards, like circuit breakers and security councils, as necessary interim measures. Critics of Aráoz stress that many security breaches stem from social engineering and operational flaws rather than just code, highlighting a more complex security ecosystem that is rapidly evolving in parallel with AI advancements.