Binance’s Latest IEO Arkham Faces Allegations of Data Harvesting

The latest project to be promoted through the Binance initial exchange offering (IEO) program has raised a few eyebrows from the crypto community. Arkham describes itself as the world’s first on-chain intelligence exchange, but more may be occurring below the hood. 

On July 10, Binance announced its 32nd IEO, the Arkham (ARKM) token sale on the Binance Launchpad. 

Arkham on Binance 

There will be an Arkham token airdrop for Binance Coin (BNB) holders who commit and lock their tokens into the sale. 

In an effort to boost BNB, Binance has allowed an accumulation period from today until July 17. The ARKM token sale will occur between July 17 and 18 for BNB holders. 

Arkham is a platform that allows users to buy and sell information on the owner of any blockchain wallet address. 

The team stated that buyers on the Arkham Intel Exchange request intelligence from the community by placing bounties. “Bounty hunters claim them by submitting the requested intel, thereby earning rewards,” it explained. 

It added that anyone with “valuable information on a wallet or its owner” can offer that data for sale for a buy-it-now price or via auction to other users. 

“This creates a liquid market for information, allowing on-chain sleuths to monetize their work at scale: “intel-to-earn”.”

The project has raised some eyebrows among the skeptical crypto community. Cinneamhain Ventures partner Adam Cochran was really gunning for the project slating the Dallas-based company. He commented on an email leak that has already happened through the project’s referral links:

“Has a clear Privacy Policy limiting the ways they can use your email, including a hash, which they just breeched.”

“Arkham also sniffs and logs its own users’ data, including binding their wallet addresses, device ids, locations, etc,” he said. “Its free cause you are the product,” he added, comparing it to centralized social media platforms that harvest user data. 

Other industry observers have labeled Arkham as a “dox-to-earn” or “snitch-to-earn” project. 

Polygon Labs’ Hudson Jameson said that the snitch-to-earn component was useful, but the submissions end up on Arkham, which is the central arbiter. “Someone should fork the contracts and decentralize this,” he added. 

BNB Price Pumps

Degens are already loading up on BNB in preparation for the Arkham token sale. As a result, BNB prices surged almost 6% on the day.

BNB was trading at $246 at the time of writing, having jumped from $232 before the Arkham token sale announcement.

However, the exchange token has lost 20% since US regulators launched their attack on Binance early last month.