Discover How Desmond Ho Successfully Resolved Smart Contract Audit Challenges with BuildBear

The Challenge

Why Existing Tools Weren’t Enough

As a security researcher working across Spearbit, Sherlock, and Code4rena, Desmond faced several critical pain points:

• Local Testnets like Hardhat lacked collaboration and observability. Sharing test states was difficult, and debugging without a proper explorer was a huge limitation.
• Mainnet testing required spinning up complex protocol states from scratch, costing time and increasing setup overhead.
• Public testnets were completely transparent, making them unsuitable for confidential contract reviews or stealth audits.

Desmond needed a way to test smart contracts in realistic conditions, but without the friction or exposure of traditional tooling.

The Solution

How BuildBear Helped

BuildBear enabled Desmond to spin up private, forked testnets with full transaction visibility, instantly solving the core issues he faced:

• He could fork Mainnet in seconds, loading real-world state for accurate, context-aware testing.
• Using BuildBear Explorer, Desmond could review transaction data and interact with deployed contracts without needing custom scripts.
• With access control, he maintained privacy and security, sharing test environments only with trusted collaborators.

BuildBear became a critical component of his audit workflow, bridging the gap between reproducibility, realism, and confidentiality.

The Result

In Desmond's Words

"BuildBear helps with being able to spin up a fork environment and also comes with a nice Explorer where we can see different kinds of Transactions."

With BuildBear, Desmond streamlined his testing process, saved hours of setup time, and gained tools that fit his security-first workflow.

Conclusion

A Better Path for Security Researchers

Desmond’s experience reflects a broader shift in smart contract auditing: moving toward tools that simulate real conditions without sacrificing speed or control.

BuildBear empowers solo auditors and security firms alike to:

• Collaborate in shared environments
• Test against real protocol states
• Keep sensitive contracts confidential

For researchers like Desmond, it’s not just about faster testing, it’s about doing it right, with full context and complete confidence.

Testimonials

Here's what Desmond Ho had to say about their experience with BuildBear

Hardhat falls short for collaboration and transparency. BuildBear gave me the control and observability I needed to debug contracts with full visibility.

I use BuildBear for confidential audits, protocol testing, and everything in between. It’s become my go-to tool for real-world smart contract validation.