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Crypto Sleuth Ogle offers a security-focused “glue” blockchain
Pseudonymous crypto detective Ogle has witnessed many failures while investigate DeFi hacks. He’s part of a cottage industry of security experts who clean up the mess caused by attackers targeting crypto-finance projects on an almost daily basis. His specialty: finding them and recovering the money from the projects.
Stopping these heists depends on good smart contract code and savvy security. In an interview with CoinDesk, Ogle said it is also a game of incentives. If an attacker feels that the personal cost of their exploit may be too high, they may decide not to mount it at all.
This philosophy is one of the pillars of Ogle’s upcoming blockchain, called Glue. He plans to fund a security blanket that will raise the stakes for the black hats and – hopefully – entice them to take their heist elsewhere.
Glue has largely gone unnoticed this year, despite a $1.4 billion valuation in a public token sale. This is another newcomer to layer 1 blockchain, at a time when many competitors are vying for the attention of crypto traders and developers.
Ogle Participant lacks the brand appeal of trendy platforms like Monad and Berachain, two other blockchain platforms that have yet to launch. Instead, he deployed guerrilla marketing tactics (like handing out Spy-like manila envelopes at industry conferences) to stir up intrigue.
In interviews with CoinDesk, Ogle and co-founder SnapShot described Glue’s philosophy, security, and design. They think it can appeal to “regular people who don’t do crypto all day” as well as traditional finance professionals “who can’t get into a platform where they think they’re going to be robust” .
Hub Security
“We want to build something that actually has a chance of competing with banks,” said Glue co-founder Snapshot.
Glue will be built around a “hub” of activities that brings together DeFi services for users on the chain. This level of curation makes Glue significantly different from the construction of most other blockchains. Usually their users have to find what they are looking for themselves.
“‘Centralization’ is a dirty word in crypto for good reason, but from a UX perspective, I think we can have a much more centralized interface,” SnapShot said. Ogle said Glue Hub would facilitate on-chain integration – “almost like Coinbase.”
The approach targets the 90% of crypto users who SnapShot says stick to centralized exchanges, rather than the “one million – virtually no one” who it says operate on-chain.
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Glue Hub won’t be the only place users can trade. The channel is permissionless, meaning anyone can create and launch anything for anyone to use. These creations could be integrated into Glue Hub if they pass security checks like audits commissioned by Glue.
Audits have emerged in the crypto space as a sort of marketing tool in their own right. Projects commission reports from on-chain verification specialists who comb through their smart contracts to weed out money-losing bugs. These checks are not definitive – many audited projects are still operating – but projects tout their good health as a seal of approval.
This practice has gone too far, according to Ogle, who said he once ran an auditing firm. Many projects only want to be transparent about good reports and choose to bury the bad ones, he said.
“It’s not good for security, for the cryptosphere itself,” he said.
Instead, Ogle said high-caliber projects on Glue could be subject to audits funded by the chain through the Glue Security Fund. This fund will come from a small fee applied to each transaction, the founders said. This will fund various efforts to promote safety throughout the chain.
Audits don’t always work. Euler Lending Protocol lost $200 million in an escaped hack 10 audits 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 claims to have a 65% success rate in recovering money for the 40 or so exploited projects he has helped.
“We have funds set aside for me and a group of people to go after anyone who does bad things,” Ogle said. He then added that any security service (whether vigilante detectives, 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 deter hackers from trying to attack Glue projects in the first place. They won’t be able to catch everyone, Ogle said. But if potential hackers are comparison targets, they might think twice before hitting the target who has a war chest willing to pay to track them down.
Transactions on Glue will be multi-signature, meaning any attempt to transfer money from wallets will require multiple approvals from the user. Ogle said this default configuration opens the door for third-party services to create tools that increase user security, such as flagging any money movements that seem out of the ordinary.
This could prevent people from losing money through seemingly innocent wallet interactions.