Guidelines for the Arkham Intel Exchange
July 14, 2023
Summary:
- The Intel Exchange is exclusively for intelligence regarding blockchain transaction analysis in the public interest.
- Bounty submissions can rely on publicly available information only.
- Individual attributions are allowed only when in the public interest.
- No physical addresses, phone numbers, or other sensitive personally identifiable information is allowed to be requested or submitted.
- Only submissions that establish an attribution with a high level of confidence, with independently verifiable public information, will be accepted.
The Arkham Intel Exchange is the first marketplace for on-chain intelligence, incentivizing beneficial on-chain research and decentralizing it at scale. The goal is to usher in a new era of greater transparency in crypto, where scammers, hackers, dumpers, and other harmful actors can be identified much more easily and quickly — and valuable pieces of market analysis, dashboards and research can be monetized by their discoverers.
The Intel Exchange is exclusively for on-chain analysis. Intelligence not relevant to attributing and otherwise analyzing important blockchain transactions will not be allowed on the exchange.
Like any public online platform, the Intel Exchange will have criteria and procedures in place for preventing abuse of the platform and ensuring trust and safety. This post outlines those criteria and procedures, which are substantially more strict than many major online platforms. Further details will be shared in anticipation of the launch, and is subject to change afterward.
The primary criteria in short:
What Will Be Allowed:
- Submissions based on publicly verifiable data
- Organizational attributions
- Individual attributions in the public interest
- Intel on scams and frauds
- Intel on market movements and dynamics
What Won’t Be Allowed:
Submissions based on private, non-public information & Personally Identifiable Information (PII), including:
- Physical address
- Phone number
- Passport number or any other confidential government ID numbers
- Bank account information
- Credit card information
- Date of birth
- Bounties or intel posted for revenge or other harmful purposes
- Intel not relevant to transaction attribution
Publicly available data only: All bounty submissions must exclusively rely upon publicly available data, such as:
- Public journalism
- Public posts
- Public blockchain labels, such as Proof-of-Reserves or ENS labels
- Public verified NFTs
- FOIA or other judicial public releases
- Corporate releases
Organizational vs individual attributions: An organizational attribution can be requested or submitted for any reason, but individual attributions will only be allowed when in the public interest. These individual attributions must still rely only on publicly available data and will include a name or pseudonym only.
PII: Under no circumstances whatsoever will personal physical addresses, phone numbers, confidential ID numbers, date of birth, or other sensitive PII be allowed onto the exchange, even if publicly available elsewhere.
The purpose of the Intel Exchange is to incentivize the production of on-chain intelligence by creating a liquid market for it. The vast majority of on-chain intelligence work is good for crypto. It uncovers the behavior of key players and allows people to better navigate the market. The Intel Exchange criteria are designed to screen out any potentially harmful information.
Any bounty proposal requesting prohibited information will be rejected. Any bounty submission containing non-allowable information will be rejected and the submission ARKM forfeited. Review takes place before a bounty proposal or submission is posted to the exchange, so rejected posts are never visible.
These rules are stricter than those of many other major online platforms. Twitter allows users to post someone’s date of birth, “gossip, rumours, accusations, and allegations”. This is not to object to their approach—Twitter is great—but the Intel Exchange will be held to a higher standard.
Governance
The Intel Exchange is governed by ARKM holders, who will decide how these rules develop and are enforced. At launch, bounty proposals and submissions will be reviewed by the Arkham Foundation to ensure that these standards are met from Day 1. ARKM governance participants will decide how the review process can be safely and securely decentralized over time. Further details can be found in the Arkham whitepaper and Codex.
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The vast majority of people are interested in on-chain analysis that is beneficial: uncovering scams, tracing hackers, verifying claims, extracting alpha, and anything else that helps them better navigate the markets. The number of people engaging in potentially harmful behavior is small, and they will not be allowed on the Intel Exchange.
The growth of on-chain analysis into a thriving part of the crypto community over the past year has been tremendously positive and exciting. The Intel Exchange will supercharge this community, reward them for their work, and make it widely available through the Arkham platform. What used to be available only to large institutions through expensive tools will now be available to anyone.