BlockBeats News, April 29th, Andre Cronje stated in an interview with Cointelegraph that many DeFi protocols today are no longer "truly DeFi" but more like "for-profit companies operated by teams," as they widely rely on upgradeable contracts, multisigs, off-chain infrastructure, and human operational controls.
Cronje pointed out that the current industry still focuses excessively on smart contract audits, overlooking operational risks more akin to Traditional Finance (TradFi). He believes that recent attacks were not caused by code vulnerabilities but rather by off-chain infrastructure, permission management, and social engineering attacks.
The discussion stems from the recent surge in DeFi security incidents. In April, protocols such as Flying Tulip, Drift Protocol, and Kelp experienced security breaches, with Drift and Kelp losing approximately $280 million and $293 million, respectively.
In response, Flying Tulip has implemented a "Withdrawal Circuit Breaker," which can delay or queue withdrawal requests when abnormally large withdrawals occur, aiming to give the team about a 6-hour response time. Cronje emphasized that this mechanism is not a permanent freezing of withdrawals but rather a protective measure within the security system.
However, Michael Egorov remains cautious. He stated that the circuit breaker mechanism itself could become a new centralization risk. If control falls into the hands of an attacker, the mechanism intended to protect the protocol could be used to freeze assets or transfer funds directly.
Egorov believes that the long-term direction of DeFi should focus on minimizing human intervention and centralization of authority rather than adding more layers of human control. "DeFi's security comes from decentralization, not additional human management."
