Does DeFi's security dilemma have to compromise with "unlimited authorization" and "trusted third parties"?

Written by: utxo_compiler​

When Ethereum users lose all their assets by clicking on a phishing link, or when a contract vulnerability on Solana causes both project teams and users to lose everything, we are forced to reflect: Is the prosperity of DeFi built on a fragile foundation of security? According to the 2024 on-chain security report, asset losses due to authorization vulnerabilities reached as high as 2.3 billions USD for the year, with over 60% of cases stemming from the abuse of "infinite authorization." Even more concerning is that the architectural features of traditional account model blockchains (such as Ethereum and BSC) make this risk almost impossible to eradicate—as long as users need to interact with DApps, they must temporarily or permanently hand over control of their assets to third-party contracts. But the question is: Must we really choose between "convenience" and "security"?

The UTXO model of the TBC public chain offers a completely different answer. It reconstructs the logic of asset interaction from the ground up: every transaction is an independent and self-contained flow of "digital cash," and users do not need to grant asset operation rights to any third party via the approve function. This design is rooted in Bitcoin’s core philosophy—"your private key, your assets"—but TBC has upgraded the technology to meet the complex needs of modern DeFi. For example, its 4GB large block architecture supports the processing of tens of thousands of UTXO transactions per second, completely solving the long-standing throughput bottleneck in the Bitcoin ecosystem; and future atomic swap protocols will enable trustless cross-chain interactions with multi-chain assets (such as BTC), allowing users to participate in the TBC ecosystem without having to entrust their assets to centralized bridges. This means that, from a technical perspective, TBC not only retains the security advantage of the UTXO model—"no authorization risk"—but also, through performance optimization and cross-chain capabilities, enables it to support high-frequency, diverse DeFi application scenarios.

Based on this architecture, DeFi applications on TBC demonstrate security features that are completely different from traditional ecosystems. Take decentralized exchanges as an example: users do not need to authorize the platform to operate their wallet assets when trading, but instead complete "delivery versus payment" directly through the atomic swap feature of UTXO; even if there are vulnerabilities in the platform contract, hackers cannot steal assets from users who have not actively signed transactions. The same applies to lending protocols—collateralized assets are always controlled by the user and are only automatically executed via pre-signed transactions when liquidation conditions are met, rather than granting asset operation rights to the contract in advance. Even NFT trading achieves true "delivery versus payment": as the buyer pays, NFT ownership is transferred in a single UTXO transaction, and neither party needs to trust a platform intermediary. The commonality in these scenarios is: security no longer relies on "trust" in third parties, but is achieved through architectural design that enables "trustlessness" as a natural state.

Even more noteworthy is that TBC’s UTXO model is driving a "security paradigm shift." The traditional DeFi security approach is "vulnerability patching" and "audit dependence"—project teams must constantly fix contract vulnerabilities, and users must always be vigilant about authorization risks. TBC’s approach, however, is "architectural immunity"—eliminating the need for authorization from the ground up, so that most attack vectors simply do not exist. For example:

• No phishing attack risk: since there are no approve transactions, hackers cannot forge authorization pages to steal permissions;
• No contract vulnerability asset theft: even if developers make mistakes in contracts, hackers cannot directly transfer user assets;
• No infinite authorization abuse: users simply cannot set "infinite limits," and all transactions must be explicitly signed.

This shift not only reduces users’ security anxiety, but also liberates developers’ creativity—they no longer need to spend massive effort designing complex permission management logic, and can instead focus on product experience and innovation.

From an ecosystem data perspective, this model has already been preliminarily validated; user surveys show that over 80% of migrating users state that "not having to worry about authorization risks" is the main reason for choosing TBC. In the future, as cross-chain technology matures (such as direct support for BTC and ETH assets in DeFi), privacy features are upgraded (such as zk-UTXO transactions), and institutional-grade tools are launched (such as compliant KYC solutions), TBC is expected to become the preferred choice for security-sensitive users and institutions.     

The security dilemma of DeFi has never been an unsolvable problem—we just need to break free from the "account model" mindset. The TBC public chain proves that by combining the UTXO model with innovative technology, we can indeed build a DeFi ecosystem that is both secure and efficient: here, users do not have to compromise between convenience and security, and developers do not have to weigh functionality against risk. Perhaps this is what blockchain should be: technology serving people, rather than people adapting to the flaws of technology. Choosing TBC means choosing a simpler, safer DeFi future—where asset security is not a luxury, but the default state.