At first glance, you may think to yourself — “yet another ambitious blockchain platform?”. This article aims to tell you more about how Sentinel Protocol — a Security Intelligence Platform for Blockchain (SIPB) is more than just another blockchain. Sentinel Protocol seeks to create a decentralised reputation system that can help every one of us (tech savvy or not) be more aware of potential dangers we may face with this rapidly growing crypto-world. It aims to be the first blockchain solution to countering crypto cyber crimes.

First off, Uppsala Foundation are the people creating the Sentinel Protocol — a bunch of cybersecurity experts who was recently crowned co-winner of the Kyber Network Developer Competition. They seek to build a community of white-hat hackers / security experts called “The Sentinels”, which will be rewarded (with UPP tokens) upon post hacking investigation.

Why do we need this?

Basically, their whitepaper identified a few issues we’ve been facing as a crypto community.

The ‘average joe’ being prone to countless types of attacks. Wallet theft, phishing, fake ICO fundraising sites; these are just a few out of many. The inability to collectively identify and track crypto criminals. Not being able to respond quickly enough crypto cyber attacks.

Their goal of building a cybersecurity platform on the blockchain (the Sentinel Protocol) ensures immutability — that means that details recorded on such crypto attacks can’t be hacked, erased, nor modified. Having a transparent system will allow the crypto community to benefit from it. An example would be the crypto-exchanges collectively being updated on threats to look out for and to quickly deal with them, stopping bad actors and preventing cybercrime efficiently.

Features on the Sentinel Protocol

The Sentinel Protocol brings the idea of a collective security intelligence one step further, injecting artificial intelligence to optimise threat detection. Firstly, with machine learning techniques, suspicious transaction patterns would be flagged and these information will be shared with the blockchain’s reputation system. Secondly, a Fraud Detection System (FDS) will be created and managed by The Sentinels — certified cybersecurity experts. These Sentinels contribute on the reputation system through research and analysis, and will be granted authority to update the system.

Additional unique security features the Sentinel Protocol provides includes a Threat Reputation Database (TRDB), a Machine Learning engine integrated Security Wallet (S-Wallet), and a Distributed Malware Analysis sandbox (D-Sandbox).

Threat Reputation Database (TRDB)

The main idea of the TRDB is to enable critical threat information to be available to everyone. Decentralising such information would ensure a higher difficulty in tampering with the data. In addition, sharing these information will ensure that all interested parties can benefit from such information. It will primarily be managed by The Sentinels, however, the general public will be able to contribute to some extent too.

Machine Learning (ML) engine integrated Security Wallet (S-Wallet)

The S-Wallet remains connected to the TRDB, to gather real-time security information updates, to proactively respond to threats and attacks. This then, keeps the wallet safe from ever-changing threats and attacks.

Distributed Malware Analysis Sandbox (D-Sandbox)

Providing a sandbox will allow untested and unverified implementations to be first tested on a separate virtual system before the reputation system is updated. This ensures a more robust security ecosystem within the blockchain.

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The potentials of the Sentinel Protocol continues to excite the community, and I strongly believe that this project can only expand further from here in the future. It will be interesting to see the adoption of the Sentinel Protocol in various marketplaces in the near future, as cybersecurity remains a critical component across the different blockchains.