The cryptocurrency token craze is tumbling ahead at a pace that one might call, well, crazy. That’s because blockchain-ledger security is the foundation of token economics — and the cement is still wet, according to Hartej Sawhney (pictured), co-founder at Hosho.io and adviser at Pink Sky Capital.

Hype aside, crypto’s still in the early innings, with a lot of dust from the ball field swirling. “What’s going to help the dust settle within the blockchain ecosystem is more priority on security,” Sawhney said. There remains a healthy skepticism among more traditional financial institutions and enterprises. This will change only when blockchain technologies are guaranteed secure — and it will take startups like Hosho.io and others to make that happen, he added. 

Sawhney spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at the IBM Think event in Las Vegas. They discussed the emerging demand for blockchain security. (* Disclosure below.)

Bulwarking blockchain basics

Initial coin offerings that allow startups to raise mountains of capital with frighting speed are sexing up the domain and attracting 49ers for good and ill. But the focus of the beam of tokens can distract investors from the less exciting but crucial question of basic security, according to Sawhney.

“The discussion of just tokens and token sales and leveraging tokens as a currency — it’s a premature time in this entire industry to be having that discussion,” he said.

Hosho — which means “security” in Japanese — launched eight months ago with the aim of becoming the world leader in blockchain security. “It’s been regular practice in the cybersecurity world to type up code and to have it reviewed by a third-party auditor. We’re simply applying the exact same logic to the blockchain space,” Sawhney stated. 

Hosho marries the source of truth (a white paper in the case of an ICO) with the smart contract and make sure the latter does what the white paper says, Sawhney explained. It also performs a number of analyses to make sure the blockchain is not clogged and to find hidden functionality in the contract’s framework, for example.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the IBM Think event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM Think. Neither IBM, the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE