Blockchain
Cryptocurrency Detective Ogle Proposes Security-Focused “Glue” Blockchain
The pseudonymous cryptocurrency investigator Ogle has witnessed numerous failures over time investigate DeFi hacks. She is part of a group of security experts who clean up the mess of attackers targeting crypto finance projects almost every day. His specialty: tracking them down and recovering the money from the projects.
Stopping these heists depends on good smart contract code and expert security. In an interview with CoinDesk, Ogle said it is also an incentive play. If an attacker believes that the personal cost of his exploit may be too high, he may decide not to implement it at all.
This ethos is one of the pillars behind Ogle’s upcoming blockchain, called Glue. It is expected to fund a security blanket that raises the stakes for the Black Hats and – hopefully – pushes them to take their heists elsewhere.
Glue has gone largely unnoticed this year, despite reaching a valuation of $1.4 billion in a public token sale. It is another Layer 1 blockchain newcomer arriving at a time when oodles of competitors are vying for the attention of cryptocurrency traders and developers.
Ogle’s competitor lacks the brand appeal of buzzy platforms like Monad and Berachain, two other blockchain platforms yet to launch. Instead, it implemented guerrilla marketing tactics (like handing out Spy-style manilla envelopes at industry conferences) to fuel intrigue.
In interviews with CoinDesk Ogle and co-founder SnapShot outlined Glue’s philosophy, security, and design. They believe it can attract “regular people who don’t do crypto all day” as well as traditional financial professionals “who can’t get on a platform where they think they’re going to be robust.”
“We want to build something that actually has the ability to compete with banks,” said Snapshot, co-founder of Glue.
Glue will be built around a “hub” of assets that aggregates DeFi services for users on the chain. This level of care makes Glue distinctly different from the construction of most other blockchains. Usually, users have to find what they are looking for themselves.
“‘Centralization’ is a dirty word in the cryptocurrency world for good reason, but from a UX perspective I think we could have a much more central interface,” SnapShot said. Ogle said Glue Hub will make on-chain onboarding seamless, “almost like Coinbase.”
The approach is aimed at the 90% of crypto users who SnapShot says stick to centralized exchanges, rather than the “million – virtually none” it says trade on-chain.
Glue Hub won’t be the only place users can trade. The chain is permissionless, meaning anyone can create and launch anything for anyone to use. These creations may be integrated with Glue Hub if they pass security checks such as audits commissioned by Glue.
Audits have emerged in the cryptocurrency industry as a kind of marketing tool in their own right. Projects commission reports from on-chain audit specialists who examine their smart contracts to eliminate money-losing bugs. These checks are not definitive – many vetted projects are exploited anyway – but projects advertise their clean bills as stamps of approval.
This practice has gone too far, according to Ogle, who said he used to run an accounting firm. Many projects are only willing to be transparent about the good-looking reports and choose to bury the bad ones, he said.
“This is not good for security, for the cryptosphere itself,” he said.
In lieu of that, Ogle said high-level glue projects could face audits funded by the chain through the Glue Security Fund. This fund will make its money from a small fee applied to each transaction, the founders said. It will pay dividends for various efforts to promote safety along the entire chain.
Audits don’t always work. Lending Protocol Euler Lost $200 Million Due to Escaped Cyber Attack 10 checks in two years. Ogle participated in Euler’s recovery as part of the war room that tracked down the hacker and negotiated the return of that money. Ogle says he has a 65 percent success rate in recovering money for the approximately 40 exploited projects he has witnessed.
“We set aside some real funds for me and a bunch of people to go after anyone who does bad things on” Glue, Ogle said. He later added that any security service (be they vigilant investigators, auditors or analytical compliance tools) will be able to apply for grants from the GSF. Glue token holders will determine what gets funded, he said.
The idea of GSF is to first and foremost discourage hackers from attempting to attack Glue projects. They won’t be able to catch everyone, Ogle said. But if would-be hackers are targets of comparison shopping, they might think twice before hitting the target that has a spoils of war ready to pay to chase them.
Transactions on Glue will be multi-sig, meaning any attempts to move money from wallets will require multiple approvals from the user. Ogle said this default setup opens the door for third-party services to create tools that increase user security by, for example, flagging any money movement that seems out of the ordinary.
This could prevent people from losing money due to otherwise seemingly innocent wallet interactions.