Figure C: make it stop.

Now expand this Venn diagram into several more dimensions, considering gaps in coverage across mutually incompatible network IPS and “next-generation” endpoint protection suites. This 4+ dimension risk acceptance manifold keeps CISOs up at night.

Decentralization is the Solution

Figure D: looks better than the previous Figures.

PolySwarm is an attempt to fix these market shortcomings by decentralizing the threat intelligence market.

How does decentralization address the pain points listed above?

We’re glad you asked!

Blockchain-based smart contracts (Ethereum today, Tezos tomorrow?) enable developers to program new markets. PolySwarm is a programmed market with carefully designed incentives that address the pitfalls and shortcomings inherent to today’s ad hoc market.

A decentralized market will allow CISOs to get more sleep and enable enterprises to extract better protection for less money. Here’s how:

Decentralization eliminates barriers to participation. Geographically diverse security experts proficient at reverse engineering or capable of providing unique insight will be able to exercise their knowledge from the comfort of their own home or wherever (and whenever) they choose to work. No HR department, no marketing, no sales, just pure research.

Decentralization mandates an open source, interoperable environment. Participation in the PolySwarm marketplace must abide by rules written in smart contracts and enforced by the community. No longer will enterprises be forced to choose the least-worst, “best fit” solution; they will simply mix and match intelligence that addresses their threat profile.

PolySwarm incentivizes accuracy in threat detection. As a security expert, if you do a better job than your peers at detecting badness, your reputation precedes you. As an enterprise, you can take comfort in the fact that PolySwarm rewards only constantly evolving, accurate threat detection.

PolySwarm makes the market for specialized offerings. PolySwarm’s incentive structure disproportionately rewards specialized threat detection. PolySwarm’s security experts will be incentivized to differentiate themselves, spreading talent across the threat landscape, addressing more threats than is feasible today and avoiding overlap issues present in today’s market.

About Us

The PolySwarm Team is a group of industry, government and academic Information Security veterans with decades of experience in making, breaking, circumventing and innovating in threat intelligence, reverse engineering and blockchain spaces.



That’s all for now; please stay in touch! Join the conversation on Telegram, connect with us on Twitter, send us an email or sign up for notifications concerning PolySwarm’s upcoming Nectar (NCT) token sale and open source release of PolySwarm’s contract code.

~Paul Makowski, PolySwarm CTO