Introducing Almanax

We’re excited to announce the launch of Almanax, a Web3 Security company using AI to prevent hacks on the blockchain, which contributed to $9B stolen in the past 3 years.

Founded by Francesco Piccoli and Maxwell Watson, Almanax has secured a pre-seed investment from defy.vc, a $700M+ San Francisco-based venture capital firm, and has been selected by NVIDIA to participate in its Inception Program, a program that nurtures startups revolutionizing industries with technological advancements.

Our Vision: Prevent Catastrophic Crypto Losses

At Almanax, we believe the full potential of Web3 can only be realized with a strong foundation in security. While a hack in web2 steals customers’ information, which hackers can use to ask for ransom payments, a hack in web3 is much more direct. Because there is money at the protocol level, once a hack happens, money is directly stolen and a transaction cannot be reversed. Hence the need for even stronger security, which is more possible today with the recent advancements in AI.

Transforming Web3 Security

Smart contracts are lines of computer code that represent the beating heart of a blockchain application. They have historically been cybercriminals’ favorite attack vector. To defend themselves, blockchain companies contract cybersecurity firms to conduct what is known as a security audit of their smart contracts, with the goal of finding and fixing these vulnerabilities.

Our first product addresses the pressing need for better security tools in the Web3 space. Using cutting-edge AI and large language models (LLMs), Almanax provides automated security scans, by finding vulnerabilities in code before hackers do. This offers blockchain developers a detailed vulnerability check and security patches in seconds, drastically enhancing current security practices.

The benefits of our tool address industry-wide pain points:

• Reduced Costs: Traditional security can be prohibitively expensive, often costing between tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars, making security out of reach for many projects.
• Shorter Wait Times: The high demand for skilled security professionals has created long waitlists, sometimes up to 8 months, which can delay development and project launches.
• Point-in-Time Limitation: Conventional security relies on audits, which offer only a snapshot in time, failing to provide ongoing security assurance.
• Ineffectiveness: Humans often make errors. 91% of smart contracts that faced breaches in 2022 had been audited, leading to over $2 billion in losses.
• Redundancy: It is usual for projects to undergo numerous manual audits during development, compounding all of the pain points above.

Addressing the Void in Web3 Security

A shocking $9 billion was stolen across the Web3 space in the past 3 years. Causes range from exploits of smart contracts to phishing schemes and compromise of wallets. The hacking of Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s personal wallets, resulting in the theft of over $112 million worth of XRP, and the $197 million hack of Euler Finance serve as stark reminders of the vulnerabilities present in today’s digital asset landscape. We decided to launch Almanax to fix this.

Almanax’s founders bring extensive experience in Web3, AI, and Cybersecurity.

Francesco was the former Head of Product at AnChain.AI, where he built products to investigate multi-million-dollar hacks for the US SEC, FinCEN, IRS, and Italian Police. Before AnChain, Francesco conducted AI research with Ripple and also worked on autonomous driving research with Volvo Cars. Maxwell, a former Senior Software Engineer at Coinbase, led the company’s blockchain infrastructure projects. Prior to that, he built Capsule8’s runtime security products which led to its acquisition by cybersecurity giant Sophos.

We are bringing AI and automated security where it is needed most. We look forward to building toward a safer and more accessible web3 alongside the broader ecosystem.

Get early access on our website. To connect directly, reach out at francesco@almanax.ai.