The Blockcrunch Podcast
Arkham Intelligence and Ethics of Privacy on Blockchain - Miguel Morel, Arkham Intelligence, Ep. 244
Fri Jul 14 2023Description
The episode covers Filecoin's launch and features, Arkham Intelligence and its platform, privacy and data on the Arkham platform, the referral system and Intel exchange, privacy concerns and regulation in crypto, and privacy and transparency in blockchain. It explores topics such as smart contracts, decentralized storage, on-chain analytics, risk management, fraud investigation, user privacy, government involvement, self-regulation in crypto, mislabeling incidents, trust and safety features, base layer privacy, privacy-enabled blockchains, transparency in blockchain information, and the importance of privacy tools.
Insights
Filecoin's launch of smart contracts will transform it into the world's largest open data economy and a layer one within Web3.
The launch of smart contracts in Q1 will have a significant impact on Filecoin, positioning it as a key player in the open data economy and Web3.
Arkham Intelligence aims to match demand for on-chain analysis with supply from on-chain analysts through their Intel Exchange and Marketplace.
Arkham Intelligence is focused on creating a platform that connects users seeking on-chain analysis with analysts who can provide valuable insights through their Intel Exchange and Marketplace.
Privacy concerns arise due to Arkham's association with Palantir and concerns about government involvement.
The association between Arkham and Palantir, as well as concerns about government involvement, have raised privacy concerns among users and the community.
The Arkham platform does not collect private user data and is based on publicly available blockchain information.
Users can sign up with any email address, and the platform does not collect private data or use customer/user data to enhance or analyze the product.
The Arkham Intel Exchange aims to provide additional information and evidence without deciding guilt or innocence.
The Intel Exchange is designed to incentivize analysis of platforms like FTX and provide valuable information without making judgments of guilt or innocence.
Crypto lacks regulation and transparency compared to public companies in the equities market.
The lack of regulation and transparency in the crypto market is a significant difference compared to public companies in traditional markets.
Privacy-enabled blockchains are important and should exist to protect user privacy.
The importance of privacy-enabled blockchains is emphasized, highlighting the need for tools and technologies that prioritize user privacy.
The next level of decentralization is complete transparency in blockchain information.
Complete transparency in blockchain information is seen as the next step in decentralization, similar to how most people use public blockchains with the option for privacy tools.
Trust and safety features have been implemented on the Arkham platform to ensure accurate labeling and attribution.
To address potential mistakes and misinformation, trust and safety features have been implemented on the Arkham platform to differentiate between user-generated labels and verified labels.
Base layer privacy would prevent doxxing addresses and protect user identities.
Implementing base layer privacy in blockchain technology would prevent the exposure of user identities and protect against doxxing.
Chapters
- Filecoin's Launch and Features
- Arkham Intelligence and its Platform
- Privacy and Data on the Arkham Platform
- Referral System and Intel Exchange
- Privacy Concerns and Regulation in Crypto
- Privacy and Transparency in Blockchain
Filecoin's Launch and Features
00:02 - 07:08
- Filecoin's launch of smart contracts in Q1 will transform it into the world's largest open data economy and a layer one within Web3.
- The Filecoin Virtual Machine will allow users to automate storage and renewal of data, pay for computation, and trigger retrievals.
- Filecoin has onboarded 450 petabytes of real data in 2022, making it the world's largest decentralized storage network.
Arkham Intelligence and its Platform
06:44 - 13:38
- Miguel Morel is the CEO of Arkham Intelligence, a data analytics company that helps de-anonymize crypto wallets.
- Arkham recently raised $10 million from two rounds of fundraising and launched their ARKM token through Binesis launchpad.
- Arkham Intelligence aims to match demand for on-chain analysis with supply from on-chain analysts through their Intel Exchange and Marketplace.
- Arkham is different from other companies in that it incentivizes external players to tag wallets, potentially compromising user privacy.
- The platform benefits retail traders who use it for on-chain analytics research and risk management.
- It also serves professionals such as trading firms, market makers, exchanges, and journalists who rely on Arkham's data for market insights and reporting.
- The main use cases of Arkham include finding alpha by analyzing major players' activities, conducting protective research for risk management, and investigating fraud or hacks using on-chain data.
- People are skeptical of Arkham due to its association with Palantir and concerns about government involvement.
Privacy and Data on the Arkham Platform
13:22 - 20:20
- The platform has no business contracts, generates no revenue, and all data on it is public.
- Users can sign up with any email address, and the data on the platform is based on publicly available blockchain information.
- After the public launch, anyone will be able to use Arkham without signing up.
- The podcast host's company does not KYC users or collect private data on them.
- Allegations of collecting user data are a misinterpretation of the privacy policy and terms of service for clicks.
- Customer or user data is not used to enhance or analyze the product in any way.
- Certain information may be collected from users for providing services like login access, but it is not tied to wallet addresses or uploaded onto the Arkham platform.
- IP addresses may be collected for security purposes by third-party partners like CloudFlare during DDoS attacks.
Referral System and Intel Exchange
19:53 - 26:24
- After the pilot program, Arkham opened up to more community members through a referral system.
- The referral system showed who referred someone to ensure trust and prevent scams.
- The referral system spread quickly, increasing user numbers from 100 to 100,000 in nine months.
- Feedback led to removing email addresses from public view but still using them for rewards tracking.
- Email addresses were encrypted and salted to address privacy concerns.
- Only a small percentage of users used the referral system, and they are being rewarded.
- Claims of email addresses being tied to wallets are not publicly verifiable or clear.
- Guidelines for the Intel to Earn model will be published soon to address safety concerns.
- The Arkham Intel Exchange aims to draw a line on what information should be allowed and what shouldn't.
- Personally identifiable information that could put someone in danger will not be allowed on the exchange.
- The exchange will reward on-chain analysts for their research on trading activity, market activity, and exposing bad actors.
- Information found publicly on-chain and vetted with a trail of publicly available information will be allowed.
- The exchange is not meant to decide guilt or innocence but to provide additional information and evidence.
- When influential figures expose someone, the community often assumes guilt without waiting for a court case.
- The intention of the exchange is to incentivize analysis of platforms like FTX to determine legitimacy or fraud before they become significant.
- There are no specific gatekeeping measures for tagging wallets, but affiliation with notorious individuals or lack of connection to anything on-chain may be rejected.
Privacy Concerns and Regulation in Crypto
38:10 - 44:54
- Crypto lacks regulation and transparency compared to public companies in the equities market.
- The SEC does not monitor trades in crypto like they do with public companies.
- Self-regulation is important for the crypto community.
- Mislabeling incidents have caused panic and price drops in Bitcoin.
- Arkham platform allows users to edit labels on wallets, leading to potential mistakes and misinformation.
- Trust and safety features have been implemented to differentiate between user-generated labels and Arkham team verified labels.
- DB newswire alerts were broken due to a bug in the Arkham platform, causing mislabeling of government wallets.
- Creating a technology like Arkham is trial and error, aiming for transparency and accuracy despite the vast amount of data points.
- Continued development of technology using AI, machine learning models, data science tools, address heuristic matching, and analyst verification is necessary for accurate labeling and attribution.
- Moving towards community involvement in determining what information should be included or excluded from the platform.
- Base layer privacy would prevent doxxing addresses.
Privacy and Transparency in Blockchain
50:52 - 55:29
- Doxxing would not be possible with base layer privacy
- Privacy-enabled blockchains are important and should exist
- Privacy tools should be used on public blockchains for private transactions
- Public blockchains already have aggregated information that can be used by large institutions
- Analytics companies are using private scout programs to gather information
- The next level of decentralization is complete transparency in blockchain information
- Blockchains will be similar to the internet, where most people use public blockchains but have the option for privacy tools
- Crypto should not aim to uncover user identities and activities