In the wake of recent phishing and hacking problems at their cryptocurrency exchange, Binance has decided they are going to move from playing defense to offense. They are going to start offering bounties for information that leads to the capture of anyone operating a hacking or phishing operation targetting Binahce.
PR stunt, or legitimate bounty hunter operation? You decide!
The initial bounty offer is $250,000. However, Binance has allocated "$10,000,000 USD equivalent in crypto-reserves" to the bounty fund, so it is only logical to conclude they intend to keep it running for some time and through multiple potential claimants.
I suspect such a campaign will provide no real actionable intelligence. Even if exchange customers were trained security experts (which they are not), how would they intercept, or have access to, any information about potential hacks or phishing attempts? It seems like a well-meaning PR stunt that has no real downside, since preventing a hack will probably save more than $250,000 anyway, so why not leave the offer out there on the table?
Perhaps the mere perception of a bounty being available would make it more appealing or profitable to hack other exchanges, but frankly, I doubt it. Binance is a large and well-known exchange with high volume, so I can't imagine an amateur bounty program taking a substantial portion of the "heat" off, which is no doubt more organized than the would-be "Dawg"s.
In case you were wondering, yes, the bounties are denominated in fiat. However, you'll note that Binance only offers "USD-equivalent", so actual payouts could be cryptocurrency or even Binance tokens. That latter option, in particular, would be amusing, albeit contractually sound.
I suspect it might not be the best PR move, though!
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*Sources: Google, Binance, ZH *
Copyright: A&E, Binance, Star Trek TNG