Polyswarm is a decentralized threat intelligence market realized through Ethereum smart contracts and blockchain technology. It defines the sources of threat intelligence and how to derive good intelligence from the bad (inaccurate) threat intelligence.

PolySwarm harnesses precise economic methods to facilitate rapid innovation in the $8.5 billion cyber threat intelligence field, providing timely and accurate malware identification for the global community of security experts.

Background

Currently, enterprises primarily rely on combinations of antivirus subscriptions, dynamic threat intelligence, and sandboxed dynamic analysis engines to combat evolving cyber threats. Users must consider the pros and cons of each solution and choose a suitable mix based on their circumstances. The current market model does not incentivize solutions that provide broad threat coverage. Instead, existing solutions focus on comfortable threat zones, shaping the current market economy.

Its common (and perhaps reasonable) for antivirus solutions to ignore detecting WannaCry³ (ransomware). However, this means that the current market only effectively rewards vendors for overlapping areas, leading to inefficient market dynamics with duplicated costs – a classic tragedy of the commons. Similarly, imagine a vendor choosing to develop protection outside the comfort zone, which is defined by the threats faced by most enterprises. A vendor specializing in a specific direction would struggle to find a market. How can you convince potential customers that they will face a certain type of malware and that you are the only qualified provider to detect, prevent, or mitigate it? Additionally, because many current solutions cannot be mixed and matched, achieving comprehensive coverage is often impossible.

PolySwarm provides a viable income source for security experts
When the market economy fails to provide enough honest work, some security experts turn to developing ransomware, spreading botnets, or leveraging their skills for malicious attacks. PolySwarm offers them a borderless choice: unrestricted rewards for honest work, where experts compete to make the internet safer.
PolySwarm prioritizes user interests
The PolySwarm market aligns economic incentives with what matters most: accurately identifying malicious intent ("threat intelligence"). Accuracy is determined through a process we call "Mediated Consensus." In short, PolySwarm provides users with instant access to a crowd-sourced pool of cybersecurity expertise. Need to quickly identify a suspicious document? Just Swarm It™.