Overview
Midgard Labs is a blockchain engineering firm that checks smart contracts (programs that run on a blockchain and follow fixed rules for moving funds or data) for security flaws and builds them for other teams. Its development work for blockchain projects runs from early design through launch on the main network1. Midgard Labs describes itself as the next chapter for the team behind Anastasia Labs, and says its record covers work delivered under both names2.
Most of the firm's work centers on Cardano. Midgard Labs maintains Plutus, the system that checks Cardano smart contracts before they run, a role it took over from IO Labs at Input Output in a handover coordinated through Intersect, the member organization that coordinates Cardano development3. The firm also lists Ethereum, Solana, Midnight, and Sonic among the chains it audits1. It is building Midgard, an optimistic rollup for Cardano: a Layer 2 network that handles transactions off the main chain and settles the results back on it2.
Key Features
- Security reviews of contracts and whole systems. Midgard Labs audits single smart contracts, full applications, and core blockchain parts such as ledgers, bridges (links that move assets between chains), oracles (services that feed outside data to smart contracts), and wallets1.
- Attack testing and formal proofs. Beyond reading code, the firm runs simulated attacks against agreed targets and offers formal verification, which checks agreed security properties against an explicit model of how the system should behave1.
- Engineers who write the code too. The development side covers smart contracts in Haskell, the EVM (the system that runs Ethereum contracts), and the Cardano languages Plinth, Aiken, Plutarch, and Helios, plus the off-chain software that builds and signs transactions1.
- Hands-on work on Cardano standards and assets. The team built USDCx on Cardano, a stablecoin backed by USDC and delivered with Input Output2, and wrote CIP-143, a proposal for programmable tokens that work in existing Cardano apps, later folded into the candidate CIP-113 standard2,4.
- Free tools for other builders. The team's open-source work includes Lucid Evolution, a transaction builder and off-chain framework for Cardano apps5, and design-pattern libraries for Aiken and Plutarch2.
What to Expect
Midgard Labs sells services, so there is nothing to download or sign up for. Visitors find a short website describing its audit and development work, a list of past projects, and a way to send project details or book a call2.
For projects that hire the firm, audits rest on manual review: auditors examine the agreed code and design, focusing on security boundaries, assumptions, and failure conditions. Each finding describes the issue, its impact, and a recommended fix. Depending on scope, reviews can add property-based testing (automated checks that try many generated inputs), custom checks, and AI-assisted analysis, and auditors assess the tool output before it goes into a report1. Client reports are published only with the client's approval and state the status of each finding, including unresolved issues2.
Teams that want longer-term help can choose the Continuous Security Partnership, which adds scheduled scans, attack testing, upgrade reviews, and access to auditors, with coverage defined in the engagement agreement1.
Teams that want to see past work can find a Midnight project in the firm's delivered record. Under the Anastasia Labs name, the team was one of six independent operators running the Hydra Heads, off-chain processing channels on Cardano, that handled claims for Midnight's Glacier Drop token distribution6. Readers comparing firms can browse other audit companies and development companies in the directory.
