Hacken Project Analysis — WHITE HAT COMMUNITY TOKEN

Ishaan Aggarwal
12 min readApr 16, 2018

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Cybersecurity and its history

Cyber-attacks are continuously evolving into smarter, relentless and unforgiving incidents. They are forcing businesses into conjuring a three-part defence mechanism: prevent, detect and respond. The likes of worms, viruses and data breaches have advanced rapidly in the past 25 years, thus becoming increasingly sophisticated and tenacious. It’s been a tremendous challenge for cyber-security professionals, technology vendors and law enforcement to keep up with these advancements.

Many high-profile cyber-attacks throughout the years have served as a reality check for corporate firms which essentially highlights that prevention and detection solutions are simply not enough. At this present moment in time, evidence shows skilled, determined, and well-funded hackers seem well able to access any network. A lot of focus is being devoted to having a strategy for the aftereffect of any cyber-attack and recovering quickly.

Cybersecurity

In this day and age, technology is enhancing by the day, which means that cybersecurity is top of the agenda. By protecting valuable information and acting swiftly and effectively when it gets in harm’s way, the backlash from regulators and customers can be avoided. By building its resilience, businesses can gracefully manage cyber attacks and the business can continue to succeed.

The bad news is that the problem isn’t going away any time soon –

“Popular websites are likely to continue to be targets for compromise, serving cryptomining malware to visitors, and software is available that, when run in a webpage, uses the visiting computer’s spare computer processing power to mine the digital currency Monero.” — NCA report

Cybersecurity in Blockchain space

Bombarded by no shortage of unfamiliar technical terms in 2017, consumers in the blockchain sector once again proved a ripe target for hackers and criminals. But, not all hacks and scams were created equal. Some rose above the froth — either due to their size or impact — as well as what they said about the state of blockchain technology and the industry itself.

Still, the impacts of these incidents were far from academic. Whether it was a simple wallet hack, fraudulent ICO or a bug in a piece of software code, investors lost millions, with nearly $490 million taken in the incidents.

Cybersecurity in Blockchain

So far, none of the perpetrators of these crimes has been caught or even identified, and it’s questionable whether most of these funds can be found or returned.

The high level of dependency on the internet and technology today has resulted in new revenue streams and business models for organizations, but with this arises new gaps and opportunities for hackers to exploit.

It’s becoming more and more difficult to maintain the cybersecurity measures. Part of the reason is not having a trusted audit and security firm in Blockchain and part of the reason is the lack of awareness as some project might think of it as a waste of money and resources.

Blockchain’s trust models, security, and efficiency present a unique opportunity to transform traditional business models. As with many other innovative technologies, blockchain adoption faces challenges around its nascency, the intricacies of the technology, regulatory standards, privacy, and SmartContract implications on business processes. Implementation of blockchain applications requires comprehensive, enterprise- and risk-based approaches that capitalize on cybersecurity risk frameworks, best practices, and cybersecurity assurance services to mitigate risks. In addition, cyber intelligence capabilities, such as cognitive security, threat modeling, and artificial intelligence, can help proactively predict cyber threats to create counter measures.

Strength that comes with the opportunities

Blockchain application development lifecycles, on principle, should incorporate rigorous security operations, cyber hygiene cybersecurity assurance.

Hacken — Dedicated Cryptocurrency for White Hat Hackers

And to solve these problems, we introduce to you HACKEN — Hacken is an ecosystem providing services on evaluating the customer’s code for vulnerabilities and bugs with help of Hacken community.

Prologue of Hacken

Hacken is a community-powered cybersecurity ecosystem for white-hat hacking (or ethical hacking). White hat hackers are expert, ethical hackers that specialize in testing and enhancing the security of an entity’s IT system, through exposing certain flaws or vulnerabilities inherent within the system. The core component of the Hacken ecosystem — the Hacken marketplace — features a platform which connects ethical hackers with developers that require fixes and enhancement of their systems.

Hacken distinguishes itself with its competitive advantage of blockchain based immutability. Similar companies like Bugrows, hackerone, synack etc. based in USA are proficient in Cyber security but majority of their penetration testing program, cost effectiveness, quality research as in shatters. that’s where hacken comes in. With It’s own cyber security portal fueled with the trust, immutablity and efficiency of blockchain it eliminates the existing problem effectively. thus being the unique business model company in doing so.

What is it and how is it solving the problem?

Hacken is the first custom-tailored decentralized token for cybersecurity professionals. It is based on Ethereum platform.

Hacken Ecosystem

Hacken Ecosystem is a community driven business organization created to nourish the connection between blockchain and cybersecurity communities, promote hacker ethics and encourage legitimate research of computer networks and software.

Its ecosystem will allow customers to acquire high quality penetration test services and vulnerabilities assessment for their products. The whole process, as well as the findings, are timestamped and published to the blockchain-based HackenProof Vulnerabilities and Countermeasures Certificate, uniquely issued for each project.

The services will be provided by a community white hat hackers centered around HackIT — the major Eastern European cybersecurity conference conducted annually in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

Market Size

The growth of crime in the field of computer security has obliged company owners to invest more and more to protect business.

One of the most popular forms of contract for Ethereum are tokens. More than 800 tokens have been released on the Ethereum platform since its launch in 2015. In 2017, $1.6bln was invested in ICOs based on Ethereum, but cybercriminals were able to steal more than $150m of income. About 10% of tokens passed through ICOs were in the hands of criminals.

The growth of cybercrime on Ethereum grew in tandem with ICO funding increases, while the total damage from cybercrime grew from $100m in June to $225m in August last year. In 2024, the world market for ICOs will be worth $20 bln. The industry will grow by an average of 59% per year.

Growth factors for the blockchain industry will be the increase in the need for secure online payments, as well as the spread of the internet of things. This market is restrained only by the mistrust of regulators, as well as technical problems within the blockchain itself.

More and more companies are showing interest in blockchain technology, but basic software does not meet key requirements such as efficiency, confidentiality, management and required computing power. All these factors attract more and more hackers to the technology.

All this entails the need of potential investors to protect against hacker attacks. According to the forecasts of IDC’s analysts, the world sales for hardware, software and services related to computer security will grow by 8.2% to $81.7 bln in 2017. In the coming years, growth will accelerate — an average of 8.7% per year — and by 2020 the market will grow to almost $105 bln.

Thus, the Hacken project is starting its activities in a very promising and rapidly growing market, which certainly increases chances for its successful launch and the subsequent expansion of the business.

Technology used and Why Blockchain?

Hacken (HKN) is an Ethereum blockchain-based cryptographic token using the ERC20 standard. Token storage is available in Ethereum wallets compatible with this standard, for example, Metamask, MyEtherWallet, etc. The token is divisible; it can be divided into 8 decimal places; the minimum fraction is 0.00000001 HKN.

The HKN token is focused primarily on professionals and projects in the field of cybersecurity; each tokenholder becomes a member of the community and uses the tokens to interact with other platform participants.

The ecosystem of Hacken includes the following services:

I. HackenProof — a platform for finding vulnerabilities in client software. The interaction between client and the platform is as follows:

The client takes out a subscription to the vulnerability scan program and configures a number of settings independently and Hacken community members search for vulnerabilities and their priority levels; after the search is completed, a report is provided that is checked for relevance and originality.

II. Analytical Center ​– a group of analysts engaged in research, as well as monitoring and auditing products in the field of cybersecurity. Areas of research are the following:

· Security of the blockchain, vulnerabilities and countermeasures.
· Classification, research and comparison of products in the cybersecurity market.
· Cryptography, secure communication and data protection.
· Big Data analytics and visualization in cybersecurity.

III. Business Accelerator Hacken — a program to support start-ups in the field of cybersecurity for the best and most responsible members of the community.

The plan is to attract investors to finance accelerator participants’ start-ups. These investments will be profitable for investors since Hacken will co-finance promoted start-ups, and therefore any project under the accelerating program will be carefully selected by business accelerator specialists before financing.

IV. Zero-Day Platform​ — Within a year after the tokensale, a remuneration fund is planned for the identification of Zero-Day vulnerabilities.

V. The HackIT Conference — annual international forum on cybersecurity held in Ukraine. In addition to communication, HackIT holds competitions on cybersecurity for forum participants. Participation in competitions is free of charge.

Company metrics, Roadmap with business model

The ultimate goal of the Hacken project is to create a generation of hackers for whom identifying and searching for vulnerabilities, testing and excluding intrusions is normal and the only acceptable scenario in life.

Business Model

The primary goal of the project is the launch, promotion, support and development of all services of the platform. The founders are intending to achieve these goals within the next three years.

Their primary business model includes Fees for token, contract audits, community involvement, hacken ecosystem are to be paid in Hacken token.

Instead of traditional fiat money or other cryptocurrencies, all transactions via HackenProof and Hacken Accelerator are made in HKN only. All profits from the operations of Hacken Ecosystem are split in half. Half of these Hackens is then deactivated and removed from the system and the other half is send back to be sold at the open market.

Team and partnerships

Hacken Team

The HACKEN project team is represented by more than 35 specialists. The project’s management consists of 8 people. Leading positions are occupied by:

Dmytro Budorin​​ — Co-Founder, Lead manager and CFO. Has been working for Hacken since August 2017 and is responsible for the overall strategy of the project. Certified international accountant and auditor with an ACCA diploma. Achieved significant success working for eight years for Deloitte.

Nikita​​ Knysh​​ –​​Co-founder of the Cybersecurity Forum HackIT. In the white paper Nikita is represented as the director of community relations with Hacken; however this information is not present on Linkedin. Specializes in the field of cybersecurity training for various state institutions of Ukraine. CEO at ProtectMaster, one of the sponsors of the Hacken project.

Andrii​​ Matiukhin​ — CTO and co-founder at Hacken. Has been working for Hacken since July 2017. Responsible for technical leadership of development, integration and support for the HackenProof platform. CTO at CyberGuard.

Dr.​​Yegor ​​Aushev​​ — COO at Hacken. Has been involved in the Hacken project as a COO since July 2017. CEO at Information Security Group, Project Director at Cyber Guard. Holds a PhD in high-energy physics at DESY, Hamburg.

The Stallions

It is positive that the founders have experience in activities related to the direction of the project. There are also participants who are directly involved in the cryptomarket.

Partnerships:

Partnerships

Hacken has unveiled a partnership with TAAS on October 13, the first-ever tokenized closed-end fund dedicated to blockchain assets. TAAS became the first institutional contributor to the Hacken ecosystem.

Strategic Cooperation: Hacken has recently announced a cooperation with Confideal, a platform for the creation, management and enforcement of smart contracts.

Recent ICO Partnerships — Remme, Singularity.net, Gladius, Legolas Exchange, Selfllery, Neuromation, Indorse, Nucleus Vision, Ambit. More partnerships yet to come.

Competitive Advantage

Most companies in this field work with small and medium-sized businesses, as large corporations can afford to independently maintain their own cybersecurity service. The main concentration of such companies is located on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. In Europe, such companies are few in number and Hacken can become one of the competitive companies in ensuring cybersecurity.

Since the Hacken platform uses blockchain technology, it will give customers a guarantee that user information and vulnerabilities found will remain confidential. This is one of the main advantages of the product.

Social presence and why you should get in now? The Current market perspective.

Social Media Presence

The hype quotient is low as of now. With 6192 Twitter followers, 4811 Facebook follows, 496 Reddit Subscribers, 3.3k Telegram users its clear this GEM hasn’t been on the radar of the crypto community. And since, we are at the last stage of the bear run, this is the perfect opportunity to accumulate this GEM.

Token holder’s perspective — “Burning Principle”

The Burning Principle

To increase the investment attractiveness of tokens, the project provides a mechanism for their “burning”. This mechanism is described in detail in the white paper and represents the following sequence of events in the operation of the system — for each operation, the Hacken ecosystem makes a profit. This profit is divided into two parts:

· 50% HKN is deactivated and removed from the system (Burned).

· 50% sent back for sale in open market.

Adoption

It’s currently being adopted by multiple ICOs. Token contract audits, Security audits, Cybersecurity penetration testing etc are must have needs for any tech organization especially enterprises dealing with sensitive informations like identity, financial contracts etc. Hacken helps not only large enterprises but SMEs too, with cost effective cybersecurity audits and solutions, custom made solutions securely timestamped and created on blockchain thus eliminating the fear of hack.

Final Words

Hacken is a very promising project. It’s a wonder that only very few people in the crypto community has discovered this hidden GEM.
It’s a first mover into the cybersecurity field utilizing blockchain. More importantly, its objectives of proliferating ethical hacking and its development through solving a real business need (security testing and fixes) represents a natural fit.

The success of Hacken’s ecosystem could set it up to be an authority in the cybersecurity arena, both in the traditional and blockchain industry.

HACKEN Contact Info

Reach out to Cointify Research Network for Blockchain Research, ICO and Token Analysis, Investment and Education on:
1. Telegram:
http://t.me/cointified
2. Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cointified

If you like our review and want to encourage us, then consider contributing us.
1. BTC Address: 1FBVHLpHss1XABxpqt9EXWGzs8TyzAeZ48
2. ERC20 (Ethereum or Ethereum Based Tokens) Address: 0x9FA718e06f9C541f6A9592C9c4daa0D3475B8366

Disclaimer: This post is for educational and informational purposes only and not to be considered as an investment advice. We’re neither endorsing nor promoting any of the projects mentioned in this post. Information contained herein is obtained from different sources and are believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. It is not designed to meet your personal situation — we are not financial advisors nor do we give personalized advice. The opinions expressed herein are those of the publisher and are subject to change without notice. It may become outdated and there is no obligation to update any such information.You should consult with a financial advisor or other professional to determine what may be best for your individual needs and risk tolerance. Always do your own research.

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