CASE STUDY

ChainVault — audited DeFi staking across EVM chains

A scalable DeFi staking platform with audited smart contracts handling millions in assets — designed for capital efficiency, contract safety, and a real user experience.

WHAT WE BUILT

The protocol, end to end

Contracts, front-end, and operations were treated as one system — because in DeFi, a UX bug can be as costly as a contract bug.

Audited smart contracts

Solidity contracts written to be reviewed — small surface area, invariant-first design, and property-based tests before any external audit.

Staking pool design

Pool math worked out on paper, tested against edge cases, then implemented so accounting stays exact under partial withdrawals and slashing.

Reward accrual & claims

Per-share accrual math so users can claim any time without draining the pool, and gas costs stay predictable at any scale.

Wallet integration

RainbowKit and Wagmi for connection, plus a UI layer that translates chain state, gas, and errors into language a non-crypto user understands.

Cross-chain routing

Deposits routed across Ethereum, Polygon, and Arbitrum with per-chain gas estimation, so users pick the chain that fits their position size.

Admin & pool ops console

Operational tooling for pool parameters, reward campaigns, and pause controls, guarded by multi-sig and rehearsed runbooks.

HOW WE BUILT IT

From protocol spec to audited mainnet

Four phases with contract safety on the critical path from week one, not something added at the end.

01

Protocol design

Pool math, invariants, and threat model written down before Solidity. Reviewed against comparable protocols and known exploit classes.

02

Contract implementation

Foundry-based development with property tests and fuzzing on the invariants, alongside a UI stub so integration issues surfaced early.

03

External audit & fixes

Independent audit against the frozen scope, followed by fix-and-retest cycles until the report closed without critical findings.

04

Mainnet deploy & monitoring

Deploy scripts under multi-sig, on-chain monitoring and alerting, and rehearsed incident response before any user funds arrived.

TECHNOLOGY STACK

What ChainVault runs on

Solidity tooling, EVM chains, indexing, and the front-end libraries that make wallet UX bearable.

Solidity Foundry Hardhat OpenZeppelin Ethers.js Wagmi RainbowKit The Graph Chainlink Ethereum Polygon Arbitrum React Next.js
WHERE IT DELIVERS VALUE

Where the protocol is put to work

Product surfaces the audited contracts and cross-chain routing were designed to serve.

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Retail staking pools

Open pools with per-share accrual, so any deposit size can enter and exit without dilution or gas surprises.

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Institutional yield vaults

Permissioned vaults with multi-sig controls, off-chain reporting, and pause controls sized for treasuries.

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Restaking flows

Positions that layer additional yield sources on top of the base stake, with clear on-chain accounting per layer.

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Cross-chain deposits

Users deposit on Polygon or Arbitrum when Ethereum gas is unfriendly, without leaving the same pool identity.

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Governance-gated pools

Pools whose parameters can only change through a governance vote, with the front-end reflecting the current proposal state.

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Reward campaigns

Time-boxed reward boosts for target pools, with the campaign math and end date visible on-chain.

OUTCOMES

What ChainVault delivered

Concrete results from the engagement, taken from the audit report and post-deploy measurements.

01

Audited contracts with 0 critical findings

The independent audit closed without a critical or high finding on the frozen scope before mainnet deploy.

02

3x faster settlement vs prior architecture

The new pool math and claim path settled deposits and withdrawals roughly three times faster than the earlier design.

03

Composable pools across EVM chains

The same pool primitives run on Ethereum, Polygon, and Arbitrum, so integrations do not fork per chain.

04

Real cryptographic review before mainnet

Invariants, threat model, and audit report were resolved before user funds were ever accepted.

WHY ZIKOSOFT

Why we were the right partner for this build

DeFi is unforgiving of shortcuts. We built ChainVault the way the audit path required — small surface area, tested invariants, and a UI that respects on-chain reality.

Learn more about us →
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Contracts audited before mainnet

External audit was scoped, run, and resolved as part of delivery — not something the client had to organize after handoff.

✓

Deep EVM & tooling experience

Foundry, Hardhat, OpenZeppelin patterns, and the specific gas and storage pitfalls that come up in staking systems.

✓

Delivered UI + protocol as one team

The wallet UX and the contract behavior were designed together, so users never see contradictory state between the two.

✓

Portable across chains

The protocol primitives were written to run on any EVM chain, so expansion did not require a rewrite.

ABOUT THE ENGAGEMENT

What prospects usually ask us

Practical answers on audit scope, chains, gas, and how an on-chain product like this reaches mainnet.

How were the contracts audited?
An independent auditor reviewed a frozen scope against the threat model and invariant set we produced. Findings were fixed and retested until the report closed without critical or high issues before mainnet.
What chains does it support?
Ethereum mainnet, Polygon, and Arbitrum at launch. The pool primitives were written to run on any EVM chain, so adding another chain is a deploy exercise rather than a rewrite.
How were gas costs kept predictable?
Per-share accrual math, careful storage layout, and batched claim paths. Gas was profiled against realistic pool sizes, not empty test cases, so numbers held under load.
How was the UX designed for non-crypto users?
Wallet connection, gas, and chain switching are surfaced in plain language, with clear failure states. RainbowKit handled the connect flow so users saw a familiar interface.
Can we fork or extend the protocol?
Yes. The contracts are structured for extension — new pool types, reward strategies, or governance layers can be added without touching the audited core.

Shipping an on-chain product?

Ship it audited-first. We'll scope the contracts, the UI, and the audit path in one plan.

Book a Protocol Consultation →
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