PolySwarm
| ISIN | 🆔 |
|---|---|
| Founded 📆 | 2017 |
| Founder 👔 | Steve Bassi, Paul Makowski, Ben Schmidt, Nick Davis and Max Koo |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | San Diego, California, , |
Area served 🗺️ | |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | http://polyswarm.io |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
PolySwarm is a company aiming to encourage collaboration between cybersecurity experts through a neutral cryptocurrency. The core of their approach is a marketplace for cyberthreats where active security experts who discover viruses, hacks, malware or other dangerous software can publicize this knowledge and be funded by the community.[1]
The PolySwarm marketplace uses an ERC-20 compatible cryptocurrency called "nectar".[2] Experts who discover malintent software can collect nectar from groups that might benefit from this information. The experts, in turn, can either save the nectar, spend it themselves or exchange it for other currency.[3]
The company aims to replace single, lump-sum subscription fees to malware detection firms with an active marketplace that gathers knowledge from all active security experts. It aims to unlock the wisdom of the crowds of researchers by making it feasible for users to reward the discovery by any investigator.[4]
The company was founded in 2017 by Steve Bassi, Paul Makowski, Ben Schmidt, Nick Davis and Max Koo. It maintains offices in San Diego , Japan[5] and Puerto Rico.
Strategic Approach[edit]
PolySwarm intends to capture the work of independent experts through an open marketplace, a divergence from traditional anti-malware companies that largely operate as closed silos. Darren Heitner wrote in Inc magazine, "Perhaps the most interesting premise of PolySwarm is the theory that its platform will convert intelligent security workers from potentially using their talents for evil and instead deploying them for good. Essentially, PolySwarm's founders believe that some security experts currently develop ransomware, operate bots or use their skills for other types of evil; however, if compensated (which PolySwarm intends to accomplish), these same individuals would prefer to accomplish honest work and make the Internet a safer place."[1]
An open door allows the company to work with everyone, especially the underrepresented minorities and women. The company explicitly targets female security experts like Dinah Davis, a founder of [2]. She said, "The ratio of women to men working in the tech field is bad, but the ratio of women to men working in cybersecurity is abysmal."[6] Her story and others are highlighted in PolySwarm's literature.[7]
Technical Details[edit]
The marketplace works through digital contracts published on the Ethereum blockchain[8]. Groups which need insights into any potential weaknesses in a software system create bounties. When security experts discover potential solutions, they create assertions about any potential problem and submit them to the people who issued the bounty along with a bid which represents their fee. When the bid is accepted, the bounty is considered satisfied. Any disputes can be solved by moderators known as arbiters who, in the parlance of PolySwarm, establish the "ground truth".
Developers can also create "micro-engines" which are essentially small, malware detectors that can operate in a swarm. These may work independently of each other allowing many developers and contributors to help many end users. This many-to-many marketplace encourages diversity and embraces input from all corners of the security development community. Some micro-engines may be funded by bounties and some by seed grants designed to prime the marketspace. In the long run, the micro-engines will run autonomously and generate tokens (nectar) for their creator. People may have hundreds or thousands of micro malware detectors running on their machine.
The bids are denominated in nectar, an ERC-20 token traded on exchanges like TopBTC and BitBTC[9]. The company launched with 1.85 billion NCT tokens, of which 1.3 billion are currently circulating.
References[edit]
- ↑ Winning, Lisa. "Fostering Inclusion Through The Blockchain". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-08-31.
- ↑ "Meet the Top Blockchain-Based Platforms for the First - Second Quarter of 2018". Entrepreneur. 2018-04-27. Retrieved 2018-08-31.
- ↑ "What can Blockchain Do For Cybersecurity?". McAfee Blogs. 2017-10-18. Retrieved 2018-08-31.
- ↑ "Blockchain is the Future of Antivirus - CPO Magazine". CPO Magazine. 2018-05-07. Retrieved 2018-08-31.
- ↑ "ブロックチェーン技術を使い、世界中のセキュリティエキスパートを集結。 世界に広がり続けるコンピューターウィルスを駆除する。". japan.cnet.com (in 日本語). Retrieved 2018-08-31.
- ↑ Davis, Dinah (2018-05-23). "I'm a Woman in Cybersecurity: The Code Like a Girl Founder's Story". Medium. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
- ↑ "Women In Tech – PolySwarm – Medium". Medium. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ↑ PolySwarm (2017-12-13). "The Case for Decentralizing the Threat Intelligence Market". Medium. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
- ↑ "PolySwarm Volume by Exchange | CoinGecko". CoinGecko. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
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