Context

Last updated 2 years ago

Context

Blockchain emerged in 2008 as the distributed ledger behind bitcoin. Since then we've seen the emergence of cryptocurrencies, decentralised finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens. Despite the technical and financial innovations made possible by blockchain, the space is unfortunately rife with scams and fraud. Over the last 4 years, the top issue across all crypto-asset complaints was “Fraud or scam” (). The value of these scams is increasing all the time, soaring to $14bn in 2021 ().

There are 84 crypto million wallets but no adequate protection for people against scams. While DeFi has burst onto the scene, there is still no way for people to protect themselves from scams. There is a burning need in web3 for solution that can counter scams and open up this space for more mainstream adoption.

Why can't we fight scams through traditional means?

Recovering assets in crypto is ineffective bordering on impossible. After losing crypto assets to a scam, individuals have a few options to seek recourse via the judicial system: police, lawyers or blockchain investigators.

Police are bandwidth constrained with very few blockchain investigators. Due to how ActionFraud works in the UK, we've heard that the police investigate less than 1% of cybercrime.
Lawyers are expensive and slow, requiring at least $100k to file an injunction to freeze crypto assets and another +$500k to carry out a full court proceedings. Since crypto assets are typically dissipated within 24 hours, this is neither cost-efficient nor effective.
Blockchain investigators are effective as they can follow the money on-chain, use on and off chain analysis to deanonymise people. However, most investigators are behind walled gardens at expensive professional services firms like Grant Thornton and the ones that exist for the consumer require payment upfront and have very low recovery rates for funds.

Serving the community

Now more than ever, with trust lower than ever after FTX, in the midst of a bear market there needs to emerge a player or series of players who can rebuild trust through serving the community.

We believe that a safety net is required in web3 and that providing insurance against scams is the #1 most effective path to building that safety net.

NextVision

Last updated 2 years ago

Why can't we fight scams through traditional means?

Police are bandwidth constrained with very few blockchain investigators. Due to how ActionFraud works in the UK, we've heard that the police investigate less than 1% of cybercrime.
Lawyers are expensive and slow, requiring at least $100k to file an injunction to freeze crypto assets and another +$500k to carry out a full court proceedings. Since crypto assets are typically dissipated within 24 hours, this is neither cost-efficient nor effective.
Blockchain investigators are effective as they can follow the money on-chain, use on and off chain analysis to deanonymise people. However, most investigators are behind walled gardens at expensive professional services firms like Grant Thornton and the ones that exist for the consumer require payment upfront and have very low recovery rates for funds.

Serving the community

Now more than ever, with trust lower than ever after FTX, in the midst of a bear market there needs to emerge a player or series of players who can rebuild trust through serving the community.

We believe that a safety net is required in web3 and that providing insurance against scams is the #1 most effective path to building that safety net.