• Arkham Intelligence recently released a platform to deanonymize and trade information pertaining to blockchain users.
• They also launched an ARKM token to go with it.
• The announcement of this tool has been met with criticism from some blockchain users who value privacy.
Arkham Intelligence’s Platform
Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain sleuthing company in the vein of Chainalysis and others, recently announced the release of a platform to deanonymize and trade information pertaining to blockchain users, as well as the release of a new ARKM token to go with it. Touted as “the world’s first on-chain intelligence exchange”, Arkham Intelligence will allow users to post bounties for any information on blockchain users. Once the requested info is uncovered, the person who posted the bounty will have a 90-day exclusivity period before it becomes part of Arkham’s public database.
Criticism From Blockchain Users
The announcement of this tool has been met with criticism from some blockchain users who value privacy. They argue that in its current form, Arkham’s platform could be used to dox innocent people or for malicious actors intent on attacking specific individuals or entities without their knowledge or consent. Furthermore, there are concerns that Arkham may not be capable of properly protecting user data given its recent exposure for poor data protection practices.
Data Protection Practices
Recent reports suggest that Arkham failed to secure user data properly which led to many user profiles being exposed online without their consent or knowledge. The exposed data included emails, passwords, phone numbers and other personal information associated with registered accounts on the platform which puts those affected at risk for identity theft and fraud if this info falls into malicious hands. Given these issues, some are questioning whether they can trust Arkham with their personal information even if they use their services in good faith going forward.
Response From Arkham
In response to these allegations and concerns about data security practices within its platform, Arkham released a statement stating that it takes user security “very seriously” and has implemented measures such as two-factor authentication (2FA) and other industry best practices when it comes to protecting sensitive customer data.” They went on to say that while there was an incident involving exposed user profiles due an error by one of their contractors handling development tasks for them at the time, they have since taken steps to address the issue so that similar incidents do not happen again going forward.
Conclusion
At this point it remains unclear how much trust can be placed in Arkam’s assurances given its recent track record when it comes ot protecting customer data but only time will tell if they are able live up what they promise moving forward when it comes down protecting sensitive customer information from prying eyes