Damilola Edwards

Just borrowed Naira against my USDC in < 30 seconds on @joinhodl No Selling. No taxable event. No lost upside. Accessing cash shoudln't mean giving up your position.

These days, in almost all my discussions I get asked what I think about AI and the future of security, so I figured I should share it here Short version: I try not to have a strong opinion yet. We are clearly in a transition phase, and outside of people working directly on foundation models, no one really has a solid view of where this is going Over the past months, LLMs improved a lot. The releases at the end of 2025 were a real step change. In practice, most people I know (myself included) have barely written code in the past 2-3 months. For security, we went from "this is fun" to "this is actually useful" Right now, the best mental model I have is that we effectively jumped from having no tooling to having an advanced static analyzer or fuzzer. A lot of bugs that used to take time to find can now be surfaced quickly Does that mean security researchers disappear in 2 years? Based on today’s tech, I do not think so. There are a lot of bugs to be found. Some are found by humans, some by traditional techniques, and now some by LLMs. But it does not mean all bugs get found. If anything, history suggests there are always more bugs than anyone expects, and that gap does not go away easily The real question is: do LLMs get another capability jump, or just steady iteration? There are reasonable arguments both ways. To be honest, I do not have enough understanding of how these models evolve to have a confident answer. And anyone giving a very definite answer is probably overconfident, unless they are working directly on the models Depending on that, the role of security researchers could change a lot, including the way we work. The demand could decrease if models get very strong at finding bugs. But it could also increase if the amount of code grows faster than the models’ ability to reason about it. We could even end up with a shortage of experienced researchers in a few years if fewer juniors enter the field while seniors move elsewhere. It is hard to predict because everything depends on how model capabilities evolve On the business side, I am skeptical about "AI audit as a service". If models keep improving, it is hard to see how these companies compete with native offerings from OpenAI or Anthropic. Especially if those providers stop exposing raw capabilities and push everyone into their own products. I tried codex security, and while it is not perfect, it is clear where this is going. Mythos / Capybara seem to be around the corner, and it will be interesting to see how far it goes My current bet is that within a few months, tools like codex or claude security will be great at finding blockchain issues, and they will integrate directly into most dev pipelines. At that point, the marginal value of an extra "AI audit SaaS" becomes limited So what to do as a security researcher? Be adaptive. This is a transition period, and things will likely move fast in 2026. Stay curious, and keep working on skills that give you an edge. Regularly reassess where you are strong or weak, and where AI helps you versus where it replaces you. If you like challenges, see AI as one that pushes you to improve Also, be careful with what people call "cognitive debt" or "brain rot". I was skeptical at first, but I do see it now. The more I rely on LLMs during an audit, the more I lose part of the intuition that I normally build while going deep into code. That intuition is still critical to find complex bugs. I have not found the right balance yet, but it is something to watch It probably makes sense to revisit your view on LLMs every 3-6 months. I have already been wrong a few times on this, and I am fine with that, as long as I don’t get locked into a fixed view Finally, a lot of people focus on the downside for security researchers. But there are also upsides. I can explore codebases much faster, build custom tooling easily, and spend less time on boring tasks. Maybe it’s my last few years/months as a security researcher, maybe not. But at least LLMs let me have some fun before doomsday 😅

Believing Claude finds your questions insightful is like believing the stripper actually likes you

One more for the road...

Tried @suno out of curiosity, no music background, just clicking things, and this happened. AI really is the future and the future is already here lol.

Agriculture not tech would build mass wealth in 🇳🇬 in this decade. 🇳🇬 richest men figured it out early

What is the key difference between a contest auditor and a private/firm auditor? In one word: Responsibility I was a contest auditor for about 2 years and it's a stressful occupation since you have so little certainty and you're constantly arguing on the validity of your findings. But at the same time, you are not concerned about the overall security of the protocol. You did your job, you found the bugs and hopefully got well rewarded. Is the protocol safe to go live? Hopefully yes, but in all honesty, that's someone else's problem. This gets turned around completely for private/firm audits. You have a certainty of income and discussions are almost always constructive and positive. But you bear a heavy responsibility. The protocol came to you and confided their code to you with a burning question: - Is my code safe? - Can we deploy? - Will our dreams get destroyed by a hack if we do? For all the tiny disclaimers stating we can't guarantee anything, in essence, your mission is to ensure that the code is safe and that they can deploy. But even with the best of efforts, you can never be sure. About three weeks ago one of our clients went live, a major player on Solana for whom I lead three audits over two months to make sure their launch would go smoothly. I can tell you, there are very few times in my life where I less stressed. - Did I miss something? - Did we think about everything? - What if they get hacked? Please don't get hacked. - Watching the Telegram channel, thinking "no news is good news". - Thankfully everything went well in the end 🙂 So if you're aiming to become a private/firm auditor, I can tell you it is a wonderful occupation. But it does come with a heavy burden of responsibility.

Combining fuzzing with symbolic execution for smart contracts has never been this easy: gustavo-grieco.github.io/blog/echidna-s… When I said that some of the best security researchers are not on Twitter, Gustavo (the post's author) is a perfect example

Massive kudos to @eddiedammy for delivering two power-packed technical sessions last Thursday & Friday evening @GuildAcademy_ 🚀 The students left with answers to every question and a wealth of new knowledge. Truly an impactful experience — you nailed it, @eddiedammy 🙌

All in one resources to learn defi hacks and root cause, don't miss it

Oil palm farmers, I am currently selling part of our 50,000 oil palm sprouted seeds stock (Tenera hybrid), purchased fron NIFOR and still at their custody, going at a sweet giveaway discounted price, if interested, my dm is open.

Minimalist interior.

Might be a hot take but “More audits, contests, or bigger bounties” is not always the best advice What protocols often need the most is internal security A 7-figure bounty w/o in-house expertise is inefficient. External help is great, but you can’t outsource all your security

You can believe deeply in the mission and still grieve what it demanded from you. Purpose doesn't erase the pain. It just gives it context.

"The larger the herd, the lower the returns." @naval

We haven't even launched the new @cleteai version yet, but we've received a lot of beautiful feedback from early users.

@seunosewa Unrelated but @seunosewa How can I go about placing an ad on Nairaland? I tried mailing the mods several times, but I got no response. Can you help? thanks

it's a story. You can make things up. You can give Nyongo's character or Wright's character a suit. Wright's character is already accepted to as a genius. What I'm sensing is that Americans want an American character to wear the suit, and that's fair enough, Hope it succeeds.

I still think it takes too long to scale businesses in Nigeria. It’s something I’ve been reflecting on a lot lately. It’s a painfully slow grinding process. I know at least 20 businesses celebrating between 7 to 10 years this year. Many of them are considered “success stories,” growing year-on-year. But when you look closely, their average annual revenue still hovers around ₦500 million. And these aren’t side hustles. These are founders who’ve been fully committed from day one. That’s why I was not too surprised when people doubted that a 20-year-old premium Nigerian business could be making billions and afford a befitting HQ. Sadly, the truth is that it will be the exception, not the rule. If you study some of the most established indigenous companies, especially in retail, even after 20+ years, many are just inching into that 10 billion in revenue. The best of them, maybe, are crossing ₦20 billion. And these are smart, hardworking people building real businesses. The question I keep asking myself is: how do we deliberately catalyse enterprises in Nigeria? I know not every business will become a unicorn, but we need a lot more crossing that billion mark and doing it much faster. In my view, it’s not just about market size or purchasing power. Those matter, yes, but they’re not the full picture. I believe the real challenge lies in a mix of factors: 1. Mindset and knowledge gaps – Many entrepreneurs are unaware of the true levers for growth. Fear of expansion, limited ambition, or lack of clear vision often hold them back. 2. Structure and access to investment – Too many businesses operate without proper systems or financial discipline. That makes it hard to attract serious investors or handle growth capital effectively. We also have a broken or non-existent credit system for enterprises. 3. Operational know-how – Scaling isn’t the same as starting. Things like distribution, building teams, standardizing processes, and optimizing operations are skills that must be learned. 4. Management and leadership challenges – Delegating, building strong teams, and letting go of control is tough for many founders, but it's critical for scale. 5. The market itself – The economic terrain is rough. The middle class is shrinking, costs are high, and policies are often unpredictable. Still, some businesses are cracking the code, and there are loads of untapped opportunities, so we know it’s possible. So again, the big question is: how do we help more entrepreneurs unlock this kind of growth? I don’t have all the answers, but I believe it’s a conversation we must keep having, because a thriving private sector, with more high-growth businesses, is key to job creation, innovation, and real economic progress.

A friend of mine raises oil palm seedlings for farmers and investors interested in oil palm plantation farming. He currently has over 20,000+ mature F1 Tenera seedlings (sourced directly from NIFOR Benin) ready for transplanting. DM if interested — RTs appreciated!

Auditing code flow? 3 ways to navigate between functions: 1️⃣ Static Flow: Analyze function logic in isolation, top-to-bottom → Good for focus. 2️⃣ Control Flow: Follow the execution path, jumping into called functions → Mirrors runtime. 3️⃣ Data Flow: Track specific variables as they pass through function calls → Tracks inputs/state changes.