Common Prefix
Common Prefix is a blockchain research and engineering firm that delivers security audits, formal verification, and protocol design services to Layer-1 blockchains, DeFi protocols, and financial institutions, with a remote-first team of 40+ scientists and engineers globally.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded-
- Headquarters—
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Common Prefix does
Common Prefix is a privately-held blockchain research and engineering firm that delivers security audits, formal verification, protocol design, smart contract development, interoperability solutions, and technical advisory services to Layer-1 blockchains, DeFi protocols, and financial institutions. The company's core technical capability combines rigorous cryptographic research with practical engineering implementation, using formal verification frameworks (Lean4, Isabelle/HOL, Agda, PVS, TLA+) to produce mathematical proofs of correctness for consensus mechanisms, payment engines, bridges, light clients, and smart contracts. Notable deliverables include the XRPL Payment Engine Specification for Ripple and the pod-core paper published at DISC 2025; the firm has also assumed lead stewardship of the Axelar Network's 2026 roadmap.
The company operates as a B2B professional services firm on a remote-first, globally distributed model with team members located across 13+ European cities (Athens, Belgrade, Bochum, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Larnaca, London, Luxembourg, Oslo, Paris, Skopje, Vienna, Zurich). Revenue is generated through commissioned audits, formal verification engagements, technical advisory retainers, and select research grants (including an Ethereum Foundation Academic Grant in 2024). Pricing is custom-quoted per engagement based on project scope and complexity. The client base of 20+ named partners includes Axelar, Ripple, Mysten Labs (Sui), Pod, Celestia, Flashbots, Babylon, Bitpanda, Sei, and Citrea. The firm is led by four co-founders — Dr. Dionysis Zindros (CEO), Nikolaos Kamarinakis (CTO), Prof. Zeta Avarikioti (Chief Scientist), and Apostolos Tzinas (Product Lead) — alongside COO Haris Karavasilis, with a team of 40+ scientists and engineers holding credentials from Stanford, ETH Zurich, TU Wien, Columbia, and the University of Edinburgh.
Common Prefix firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Common Prefix
- Legal name
- Common Prefix
- Website
- https://commonprefix.com
- Company type
- Private
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Common Prefix is a blockchain research and engineering firm that delivers security audits, formal verification, and protocol design services to Layer-1 blockchains, DeFi protocols, and financial institutions, with a remote-first team of 40+ scientists and engineers globally.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Common Prefix industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Blockchain Security Services
- NAICS
- Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)
- SIC
- Finance Services (6199)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Smart Contract Auditing & Formal Verification (FSAPAJAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Digital Asset Risk, Security & Audit Tooling (Smart Contract Audit, Threat Monitoring) (FSAGAMAJ), Regulatory Reporting, Tax & Audit Trails (reconciliation, provenance) (FSAPAJAI)
Keywords
Common Prefix business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Security Audits: Commissioned security audits of blockchain protocols, smart contracts, and cryptographic implementations. Engagements include comprehensive code review, vulnerability identification, and detailed audit reports with remediation recommendations.
- Formal Verification Services: Mathematical proof development to formally verify correctness of blockchain components including consensus mechanisms, payment engines, and smart contracts.
- Technical Advisory: Strategic technical consulting for blockchain protocol design, security architecture review, and due diligence services for partners and investors.
- Research Grants: Academic research funding from organizations such as the Ethereum Foundation for specialized blockchain research projects.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels5 records
Common Prefix product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Common Prefix is a blockchain research and engineering firm that provides security audits, formal verification, protocol design and analysis, smart contract development, and interoperability solutions to Layer-1 blockchains, DeFi protocols, and financial institutions. The company combines rigorous cryptographic academic research with practical engineering to help partners design, audit, and implement provably secure distributed systems from first principles through deployment.
Product overview
Common Prefix is a blockchain research and engineering company that provides a portfolio of security-focused services to Layer-1 blockchains, dApps, and institutions. The core offerings include security audits, formal verification, protocol design/analysis, smart contract development, and blockchain interoperability solutions. These services work together to help partners achieve provable security from first principles — from theoretical cryptographic design through implementation and deployment. Notable deliverables include the XRPL Payment Engine Specification and the Honest Majority podcast series.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Honest Majority: A podcast series by Common Prefix exploring the people and ideas shaping trust technology
Products and services
- Blockchain Security Audits
- Formal Verification Services
- Protocol Design and Analysis
- Smart Contract Development
- Blockchain Interoperability Solutions
- Technical Advisory
Quantifiable outcome
- Identified and reported multiple xrpld bugs including two critical liveness issues
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Common Prefix
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Common Prefix technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature5 records
Common Prefix partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
15 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.
- RipplecoreCollaboration to improve XRP Ledger's security, robustness, and interoperability. Documented XRPL's payment engine with first comprehensive specification. Work lays foundation for formal verification of Payment Engine, Consensus, and all critical xrpld components. Identified and reported multiple xrpld bugs including two critical liveness issues.
- AxelarcoreLong-standing collaboration since 2021, beginning with security audits of Axelar Gateway smart contracts. In late 2025, Common Prefix assumed lead stewardship role for Axelar Network, driving 2026 roadmap focusing on institutional readiness, economic security, and cross-chain transfer improvements. Includes development of XRPL Amplifier integration, Ethereum light client implementation.
- PodcoreCommon Prefix serves as core scientific team behind pod, an EVM-compatible L1 built on consensusless research. Wrote the pod-core paper published at DISC 2025, authored detailed protocol specification, and contributes to engineering of SDKs and security proofs for gas pricing, voting, and auctions.
- Mysten LabsmajorActive collaboration auditing core components of Sui blockchain protocols. Multiple audits of fastcrypto library including ECVRF, Ristretto255, BLS12381, ECDSA Secp256k1, ECDSA Secp256r1. Also audited Seal decentralized secrets management service.
- FlashbotsmajorJoint exploration of novel consensus-like mechanisms for highly efficient systems in throughput and latency. Work focuses on democratization of MEV auctions and censorship resistance properties.
- CelestiamajorCollaboration analyzing data availability attacks in Celestia's lazy ledger model. Work on designing protocols for large anonymity sets at network layer enabling availability guarantees at consensus layer.
- BabylonmajorHelping Babylon augment cryptographic protocol in performance and efficiency for light clients and bridging. Provides proofs of security in various availability models for Bitcoin-level security in Cosmos ecosystem.
- BitpandamajorSecurity audit of Bitpanda's StakedVision and VisionTokenMigrator smart contracts. Separate audit of Pantos Solidity smart contracts for multi-chain token bridging across EVM-compatible chains.
- BOBmajorSecurity audits of BOB's FusionLock contract and Onramp smart contracts. FusionLock enables token locking with time-based withdrawal or bridging functionality.
- Quai NetworkmajorAnalyzing security of Proof of Entropy Minima (PoEM) consensus algorithm. Collaborated on academic paper introducing Proportional Reward Splitting (PRS) mechanism. Engaging on composability and incentive-compatibility aspects.
- Pi SquaredminorCollaborating on implementation of Universal Settlement Layer and development of EVM and WASM claim generators for state transition claims.
- SnowforkmajorSecurity audits of Snowfork's Beefy Client smart contracts (v1 and v2) and scientific review of Snowbridge protocol for Polkadot to Ethereum asset transfer.
- CitreamajorCollaboration on design, formalization, and analysis of Clementine bridge connecting Citrea with Bitcoin. Clementine is a BitVM-based bridge combining Bitcoin light client with zero-knowledge proofs, culminating in the Clementine paper (2025).
- SeimajorCommissioned by Sei Labs to review Sei Giga proposal with findings outlined in three-part blog series covering consensus (Autobahn protocol), performance enhancements, and economics.
- ZanominorEnhancing and expanding Zano's hybrid PoW/PoS consensus protocol. Analyzed protocol for potential hazards, advised on strengthening against attacks, and devised pure privacy-preserving PoS protocol (StakeNote) for CryptoNote payments.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Common Prefix competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Runtime Verification: Formal methods company auditing smart contracts and consensus protocols with academic rigor. Overlaps with Common Prefix on formal verification for DeFi, bridges, and L1 security, with comparable publication-driven positioning.
- Zellic: Security audit firm specializing in smart contracts, cryptographic protocols, and zero-knowledge circuits. Targets a similar set of L1, L2, and DeFi clients and competes head-to-head for enterprise audit engagements.
- Sigma Prime: Blockchain security and infrastructure firm offering smart contract audits, formal verification, and research services. Closely comparable in research-driven positioning and consensus/bridge expertise.
- Spearbit: Decentralized collective of independent security researchers offering smart contract audits and formal verification. Comparable in researcher-driven, premium-tier positioning and overlap with L1 client work.
- Trail of Bits: Established blockchain security firm performing smart contract audits, formal verification, and applied cryptography research for major protocols. Competes for the same enterprise audit and verification engagements as Common Prefix.
- Certora: Direct competitor in formal verification of smart contracts and blockchain protocols. Both firms apply mathematical proofs (Certora Prover vs. Lean4/Isabelle/Agda) to EVM and other chain codebases for institutional-grade security assurance.
- ChainSecurity: Smart contract auditing firm (acquired by PwC) performing security reviews and formal verification for DeFi and L1 protocols. Direct competitor for institutional audit mandates, with broader distribution via PwC's professional services network.
- Dedaub: Smart contract security firm combining audits with on-chain monitoring and analytics tooling. Competes for the same institutional-grade review engagements and shares an academic/research orientation with Common Prefix.
Broad incumbents
- Quantstamp: Larger incumbent in smart contract security auditing with proprietary automated tooling (Quantstamp Scanner). Competes with Common Prefix on audit mandates but emphasizes scaled, automated reviews versus deep formal methods.
- OpenZeppelin: Larger incumbent combining smart contract audit services with widely-used open-source libraries (OpenZeppelin Contracts) and security tooling. Overlaps with Common Prefix on the audit side but operates a much broader product portfolio.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Common Prefix social profiles
Digital presenceCommon Prefix financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Common Prefix leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Common Prefix funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Common Prefix M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments1 record
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Common Prefix
What does Common Prefix do?
Common Prefix is a blockchain research and engineering firm that provides security audits, formal verification, protocol design and analysis, smart contract development, and interoperability solutions to Layer-1 blockchains, DeFi protocols, and financial institutions. The company combines rigorous cryptographic academic research with practical engineering to help partners design, audit, and implement provably secure distributed systems from first principles through deployment.
Is Common Prefix a public or private company?
Common Prefix is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Common Prefix founded?
Common Prefix was founded in -1. It employs 11 to 50 people.
How does Common Prefix make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Security Audits are the primary driver. The others are formal Verification Services, technical Advisory and research Grants.
Who are Common Prefix's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Runtime Verification, Zellic, Sigma Prime, Spearbit, Trail of Bits, Certora, ChainSecurity and Dedaub. Broad incumbents are Quantstamp and OpenZeppelin.
Does Common Prefix have an API?
No public API is recorded for Common Prefix.
What industry is Common Prefix in?
Common Prefix's product category is Blockchain Security Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAPAJAA, Smart Contract Auditing & Formal Verification, with a secondary code of FSAGAMAJ, Digital Asset Risk, Security & Audit Tooling (Smart Contract Audit, Threat Monitoring). Its NAICS code is 541511 and its SIC code is 6199.