Benjamin Samuels

Engineering Director of Blockchain at Trail of Bits; cryptography enthusiast

Los Angeles, California, United States

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Joined April 2025

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Summary

Benjamin Samuels is a leading expert in blockchain and smart contract security, currently serving as the Director of Engineering for Blockchain at Trail of Bits. He consistently publishes articles and engages on social media about advanced security concepts, such as improving cold storage on Ethereum through smart contract programmability and enhancing bug detection in Solidity using AI-driven tooling like Slither's Model Context Protocol (MCP). His expertise spans from identifying vulnerabilities in existing systems to proposing innovative, protocol-level security measures. trailofbits+3

He is a strong proponent of rigorous software development practices in the Web3 space, advocating for formal verification and comprehensive test coverage. Benjamin emphasizes that critical bugs indicate fundamental failures in development processes and believes the industry should adopt safety-critical engineering approaches seen in other high-assurance fields, rather than solely relying on bug bounties or basic audits. nitter

Benjamin is actively involved in developing and promoting cutting-edge security tools. He contributed to the creation and public release of Buttercup, an AI-enabled Cyber Reasoning System that placed second in the AIxCC competition. He also spearheaded the soft launch of Slither's Model Context Protocol (MCP), designed to significantly enhance LLM-based bug detection for Solidity, demonstrating his commitment to practical tool development for the security community. nitter

His career trajectory showcases a deep focus on security engineering, evolving from an Application Security Engineer at Belkin and Evernote to a leadership role in blockchain security at Trail of Bits. This background is complemented by early experiences as a GSoC Developer at Google, where he worked on low overhead video systems, and a Security Consulting Intern at Cigital, Inc., providing a broad foundation in various facets of cybersecurity. theorg+1

Work

Education

Projects

Writing

Level up your Solidity LLM tooling with Slither-MCP

November 1, 2025

Discusses how Slither's new Model Context Protocol can enhance LLM-based bug detection for Solidity smart contracts by integrating static analysis insights.

blog.trailofbits.com

Safer cold storage on Ethereum

September 1, 2025

Advocates for using smart contract programmability to build more secure cold storage solutions on Ethereum, moving beyond traditional key management by enforcing security policies at the protocol level.

blog.trailofbits.com

The Engineer’s Guide to Blockchain Finality

August 1, 2023

An article explaining the importance of understanding blockchain finality mechanisms to prevent double-spend attacks in off-chain applications and L2 scaling solutions.