In the burgeoning world of blockchain and non-fungible token (NFT) technology, billions are lost every year to a plethora of deceitful scams which result in people either unknowingly handing over their funds to hackers, or paying for fraudulent services and assets.
This scenario has given rise to a new breed of blockchain analytics firms that help track valuable blockchain assets such as NFT and other digital assets through the use of advanced machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI).
bitsCrunch is one such blockchain analytics and forensics company that uses advanced computations and AI/ML algorithms to detect fraud and data anomalies, while also applying its insights to create analytics products for the B2B sector.
Shaking Up Blockchain and Digital Assets Analytics
Created in response to the bitsCrunch CEO, Vijay Pravin’s own negative experiences buying NFTs as a casual investor in the boom of 2021, bitsCrunch aims to clean up the Web3 sector by leveraging comprehensive data insights and forensic tools to eliminate fraud, wash-trading and other malicious practices in the digital asset market.
Data shows that in 2023 over $700 million was siphoned out of the NFT market by hackers targeting NFT platforms such as OpenSea, or well-known NFT projects such as Bored Ape Yacht Club.
These attacks came in a variety of forms, from phishing websites that spoofed legitimate services, to wallet hacks, to instances where attackers got access to a user’s NFT wallet through third-party sites such as Instagram and Discord.
Amid such attacks, the NFT market (like the rest of the cryptocurrency market) is at all times beset by constant wash-trading which inflates an NFT’s trade volume and results in inaccurate or inflated prices for the asset.
bitsCrunch’s product offerings are aimed at sidestepping such dangers like wash-trading. bitsCrunch uses AI to assess the true market value of digital assets, flagging overpriced or undervalued NFTs for more accurate asset valuations.
bitsCrunch also has a forgery detection system powered by AI that flags copycats and forgeries and protects against bootlegged versions of digital art – a problem that’s so ubiquitous that it’s estimated that around one in every four digital art pieces is a fake.
Besides its various fraud prevention systems, bitsCrunch also operates an NFT tracking and analytics platform in UnleashNFTs, which tracks NFTs across multiple platforms like Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, BNB chain, Solana, and AVAX, and provides in-depth oversight of the state of the NFT market.
Democratizing Blockchain Data
One thing the average cryptocurrency investor might not know is that while public blockchains are completely transparent and free for anyone to investigate, the cost of actually hiring an expert team to do so is extremely prohibitive for anyone except cash-rich individuals and corporations.
The cost of hiring a blockchain forensics team can exceed $25,000, but by decentralizing the process with the help of finely tuned machine learning algorithms and AI, bitsCrunch has driven operating costs down, and now offers its blockchain forensics services for as little as $75 a month.
bitsCrunch CEO, Vijay Pravin, said one of the driving factors behind his decision to create the project was specifically to provide a more accessible route into the wealth of valuable data that fuels blockchain analytics, enabling a fairer, more equitable industry where data isn’t gate-kept by a handful of tech-heads.
“Everyone should have the same opportunities to invest, learn and grow,” said Vijay, adding: “Democratizing access to data can play a part in opening the blockchain space up to outsiders. Everyone’s probably heard the adage that data is more valuable than oil. Well, we think everyone should have access to this resource.”
There’s irony to be found in the fact that just as AI is now being used by forgers and hackers to wreak havoc in the digital asset space by creating copycat assets that infringe on existing intellectual properties, so too is it being used to detect and remove the same forgeries at the other end.
Having raised $12M in funding so far, from investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Animoca Brands, Polygon Ventures, Chainlink, and more, as well as having the likes of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Facebook as angel investors, it seems the broader Web3 and web2 industries are quite satisfied that, however ironic, AI remains the best way to combat the onslaught of fakes and forgeries set to befall us in the coming years.
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