Morel Refutes Claims of ‘Snitch-to-Earn’ Program

The leader of the blockchain intelligence platform startup Arkham has refuted claims made by the cryptocurrency community that its new “Intel Exchange” is a “snitch-to-earn” or “dox-to-earn” system.

Miguel Morel, CEO of Arkham, discussed the public relations disaster that has unfolded this week regarding the company’s marketplace on Twitter on July 11.

Arkham’s Intel Exchange intended to “deanonymize the blockchain” by rewarding users with a new token, ARKM, for disclosing the identities behind anonymous blockchain addresses.

This week, it was launched on Binance Launchpad as a token sale.

The platform quickly earned a reputation as a “snitch-to-earn” system on Crypto Twitter.

Morel refuted these claims and defended the platform by stating that it was intended to identify scammers and hackers behind crypto exploits.

“Publicly accessible blockchains are probably the worst way to keep one’s private information private,” he said, adding that Arkham would retain control of the data:

“It’s not a completely free market. So it’s not like anybody can just post any piece of information and then it can go online.”

“There are several restrictions and guidelines that we will be implementing,” he said.

According to Morel, the primary objective of its information exchange is to identify trading firms, market makers, exchanges, and massive institutions.

He added that these significant hedge funds and trading entities are “making money off information about who’s buying and selling large positions in a particular token.”

Another participant in the Twitter Space noted that Arkham has to prevent abuse and may facilitate false accusations by so-called “crypto detectives.”

Still, Morel insisted that it would be governed appropriately.

“Thankfully, it’ll actually be more vetted and more regulated than something like Twitter or Facebook because every bounty needs to be approved.”

This made television host Ran Neuner even more concerned; he stated, “My issue is not with the system. My concern is with how your organization manages the data.”

This week, Arkham was criticized for leaking user emails through its Weblink referral program, which includes a string of easily decipherable characters in referral links that reveal the referring email address.