The company known as Arkham Intelligence, which operates through a web application, is dedicated to gathering and examining the blockchains of various cryptocurrencies, including, but not limited to, ether, bitcoin and binance. Its purpose is to unveil transactions, digital pockets and correlated identities in a presentation that can be easily understood thanks to its graphical and intuitive design. Essentially, it is a blockchain researcher that helps to explore the underlying activities. This platform has already been the subject of study by numerous analysts and journalists, and was discussed on Doortoblockchain a few months ago.

Now, Arkham Intelligence has come out with a new proposal: Arkham Intel Exchange....

What does Arkham Intel Exchange stand for?

According to the firm itself, "Our vision is that de-anonymization will become the norm in cryptocurrency markets, and that the intelligence technology created by Arkham will be essential to the self-regulation of the crypto-economy." They underline this idea by suggesting that this would make it easier to track hackers. I will elaborate on these statements later.

Arkham Intel Exchange aspires to be an "intelligence exchange" to de-anonymize the on-chain cryptocurrency markets. That is, it aspires to be a platform where information regarding transactions and identities of different digital wallets is exchanged.

How is it expected to work?

The application is planned to operate through a web interface that will connect to smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. The person interested in acquiring information will be able to deposit a certain amount of money into the contract and any researcher will be able to offer the information in exchange for that amount.

After acquiring the information, the acquirer will be the only one who can access it for a period of 90 days, after which it will be made public.

The Arkham Intelligence token, ARKM, will be the currency used in this information market.

Arkham offers several examples of how the purchase of information could be requested: locating the addresses of an investment fund's portfolios, tracking the portfolios of a specific protocol's team, uncovering the real identity of someone who is impersonating a person of significance, victims of an exploit banding together to obtain information about the perpetrator, or a company wanting to buy information about its own wallet before a competitor discovers it.

ARKM token

The token has already been released, but is not yet available for purchase or sale.

Users who have accumulated points in the app by using it or inviting other users will be able to receive an airdrop of this token.

My perception of Arkham Intel Exchange

The revelation of this new functionality has generated some agitation. Some industry leaders, such as the CEO of Aave, have expressed that they believe it is immoral because it could facilitate doxxing.

It is undeniable that privacy is valuable, and there is debate as to whether it should be absolute or not. However, total privacy has its own benefits and drawbacks, and total transparency in the private lives of citizens could also expose them to many risks.

In any case, in my opinion, this debate should not focus on this new functionality. There have always been incentives to maintain privacy and also to break it. Just as governments and companies try to break privacy on the Internet, there are foundations, individuals, companies and even some governments that are dedicated to funding and developing privacy on the net.

It's a matter of incentives, and Arkham's new application, while very interesting and potentially a milestone, would be just one small step in this historic fight, this time in favor of de-anonymization.