Exchange Concept
Originally published in the Arkham whitepaper.
The Arkham Intel Exchange is the first decentralized network to power, incentivize, and reward on-chain analysis at scale. It allows Arkham and its users to source intelligence from the thriving community of on-chain sleuths, which has been experiencing steady growth for the past two years and rapidly increased in size throughout 2022. These sleuths currently earn nothing for their work and technical expertise, but this will all change with the Arkham Intel Exchange and intel-to-earn.
The economy for blockchain intelligence is fragmented and inefficient. There is significant demand for intelligence from traders, journalists, researchers, and other observers, and there is significant supply generated by the thriving community of on-chain sleuths, but there is nowhere for these two sides of the market to meet. The Arkham Intel Exchange solves this problem by providing a platform for buyers and sellers to interact and exchange intelligence. By enabling the free flow of intelligence, the exchange increases the efficiency of the intelligence market and consequently of the crypto market as a whole.
Buyers seeking particular intelligence place bounties by staking ARKM. The staked assets are the initial bounty. Once the initial bounty is posted to the Arkham Intel Exchange, then anyone can add to it by staking the same amount or more ARKM, thereby increasing the value of the bounty and of the incentive for bounty hunters. Once the initial bounty is posted to the Arkham Intel Exchange, then anyone can add to the bounty by staking the same amount or more ARKM. Anyone can compete for the bounty by making a submission, which then goes through the intel verification process. The first verified submission receives the staked bounty.
Sellers can also set up auctions for intelligence. If a seller has information they believe is valuable to the market, they can submit it for verification. Once verified, the intelligence is put up for auction. Sellers can set standard auction parameters including end-date and a buy-now price. Then interested parties bid for access to the intelligence.
Bounty stakers and auction winners receive purchased intel exclusively for 90 days. Afterwards, it may be propagated to the broader Arkham platform for everyone to use. All ARKM staking and payout is controlled by audited smart contracts, without Arkham ever taking custody of the ARKM. To support the network, Arkham takes a 2.5% maker fee on submitted bounties and auction payouts and a 5% taker fee on bounty payouts and successful auction bids.
Intel submitted in bounties and auctions is reviewed by the Arkham Foundation, which either approves or rejects it. The Foundation's response is validated on-chain using a Chainlink Decentralized Oracle Network (DON), which serves as the oracle for the bounty and auction smart contracts. The use of a DON secures and decentralizes the intel verification process, mitigating the risk of false verification. It also lays the groundwork for complete decentralization of the intelligence review process, described below in the subpage on the intelligence oracle problem.
These mechanisms produce an ecosystem of overlapping market roles:
Bounty posters, who post bounties for particular sought-after intelligence
Bounty hunters, who hunt for intelligence to claim posted bounties
Intel merchants, who auction-off intelligence they gather themselves or receive from others
Intel collectors, who collect intelligence from auctions rather than from targeted bounties
ARKM is the currency of the Arkham Intel Exchange.
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT AN OFFERING OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO PURCHASE TOKENS. THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS HYPOTHETICAL, FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS WHICH ARE NOT GUARANTEED AND MAY DIFFER FROM THE ACTUAL DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION, AND OPERATION OF THE TECHNOLOGIES, MECHANISMS, AND OTHER ELEMENTS DESCRIBED. ARKHAM MAKES NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE COMPLETENESS OR ACCURACY OF THIS DOCUMENT AND IT IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.
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