Updates To Custom Labeling

Dear Arkham Community,

I want to directly address recent events in which two people misattributed their private labels and entities on the Arkham Platform, then posted screenshots online of their misattributed label activity or alerts, thereby sparking confusion and misinformation that attracted substantial attention. 

These events prompted confusion about whether the incorrect labels in the screenshots were officially attributed by Arkham, or were found and added by the users themselves. They were user generated, and not Arkham attributions.

In March, the U.S. Government announced they had sold $215 million in Bitcoin in connection with seized Silk Road proceeds. This prompted a number of people to investigate which wallets they believed were controlled by the government, and then create custom labels and entities from their own findings. Two users incorrectly labeled some of those wallets, posted screenshots of those attributions online, and those screenshots went viral. The wallets officially attributed by Arkham to the USG can be found here. 

Arkham's mission is to deanonymize the blockchain. We do this by turning complex, pseudonymous on-chain transactions into a clear picture of crypto addresses and the people behind them. Then, using the Arkham platform, users can search for any individual, company, or trading firm, see their associated blockchain addresses, and set alerts for their transactions and activity.

One feature we offer is the ability for users to create and manage their own custom, private labels exclusively available on their version of the platform. These private labels and entities are not viewable by anyone else. But users can still screenshot and share their findings online, even if it’s not Arkham-endorsed information. 

Unfortunately, when these incorrect address labels gain traction on social media, it can appear as though Arkham is responsible for making these attributions. To set the record straight: we are not. These private mislabels are user-generated, and their accuracy rests solely with the individual user. What is under our control, however, is how we display these private labels, in case they are later shared elsewhere. Given we can’t control how users choose to label addresses, and we can’t control how they share that information, in order to avoid confusion we have shipped a change to how custom labels and entities are displayed on the Arkham platform.

Custom labels on Arkham will now be displayed in a different color and marked by a perforated circle around the label, signaling that these labels have either been user generated or edited, and are therefore not produced or endorsed by Arkham. Likewise, alerts will now show a disclaimer that says “[CUSTOM]” for every notification involving user-generated entities.

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We are deeply committed to providing accurate and reliable data to our over 125,000 users and we appreciate your continued confidence and support.

Thank you for being part of the Arkham community.

Best regards,

Miguel 

Founder and CEO
Arkham