Arkham May Have Unintentionally Exposed Personal Information of Numerous Users

Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain investigative firm similar to Chainalysis and others, has recently unveiled a platform designed to deanonymize and trade information related to blockchain users, alongside the introduction of a new ARKM token.

Snitching as a Service

Promoted as “the world’s first on-chain intelligence exchange,” Arkham Intelligence will enable users of the platform to offer bounties for any details regarding blockchain users.

“Our vision for the Intel Exchange is a decentralized intel-to-earn economy powered by smart contracts, in which any sleuth can earn based on their skills & experience. As such, all transactions on the Arkham Marketplace will take place through smart contracts audited by our partner Quantstamp.”

There are no restrictions on the type of information that can be requested, although the company has assured that it will prohibit spammers and those providing low-quality information.

Once the requested information has been obtained, the individual who posted the bounty will enjoy a 90-day exclusivity period to utilize the newly acquired information as they wish. After this timeframe, the information will be incorporated into Arkham’s public database.

Unsurprisingly, the announcement of a tool that could eliminate one of the primary attractions for some users of blockchain technology has resulted in a divided response within the crypto community, with some accusing Arkham of attempting to position itself as the judge of right and wrong.

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More skeptical users also pointed out that this platform could easily be used to reveal the identities of whales, who might then be targeted both online and offline – similar to the incidents following the Ledger Wallet leak.

In the meantime, Arkham appears to have gained an early advantage in the endeavor of deanonymizing the blockchain – beginning with its own supporters.

Doxxing Their Own Userbase

Shortly after announcing the launch of its new service, Arkham faced criticism for doxxing its own users through the referral links for the platform’s waiting list.

The referral, which was believed to consist of a random string of numbers, actually encoded the user’s email address using BASE64 – an encryption method that is very simple to decode.

Some users even alleged that Arkham may have done this intentionally, as a company focused on investigation would be unlikely to make such a significant error by chance.

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