Sentinel Protocol 101
Since the initial first public appearance at Kyber Network Developers Competition and ICON Summit, we have been receiving a great amount of interest in our project. The team is genuinely most appreciative and excited for all the support we have been receiving. At the same time, we feel a great responsibility for delivering the security platform that we have promised. In this blog, we would like to explain what our project is about and the various methods for supporting our project. Subsequently, in our next posts, we will endeavor to respond to the most frequently received questions related to the product and advisors.
1. Sentinel Protocol is a cybersecurity platform
It is most important to understand that Sentinel Protocol will not be a typical crypto project. Our team’s cybersecurity industry expertise can generate the greatest benefits building a product at the intersection of blockchain and cybersecurity. However, that does not mean we will follow a standard growth path of a blockchain project.
As explained in the whitepaper, Sentinel Protocol is focused on solving security issues in the crypto world and beyond by leveraging advanced technologies such as machine learning and sandboxing and at the same time utilizing the collective intelligence of cybersecurity specialists. The former is built by Uppsala Foundation development engineers with collaboration with our technical partners. The latter is what we need external assistance.
The key success factor of Sentinel Protocol is to successfully encourage cybersecurity experts around the world to join The Sentinels and to assimilate their vast knowledge and intelligence of cybersecurity. The Sentinels are the group of security expert individuals and organizations who will serve to: 1) Validate hacking claims and tracing the attackers; 2) Analyze the root cause of a threat and update such information on our Decentralized Threat Reputation Database (TRDB); 3) Update our TRDB to help ensure that it accurately reflects most up-to-date security research and analysis.
From the business perspective, the adoption of our security solutions by crypto exchanges, wallets, and payment services is crucial. While individual crypto users can benefit from Sentinel Portal, they can automatically benefit from using the exchanges and wallets that have been integrated with Sentinel Protocol to receive real-time alerts on detected threats and malware.
2. Sentinel Protocol’s Token Economy Philosophy
Black Hat Hackers do malicious behavior because they earn money doing it. Sentinel Protocol will be a Security Intelligence Platform for Blockchain where White Hat Hackers can contribute security expertise and intelligence to earn Sentinel Point that can later be converted to our crypto token. Sentinel Point is not a currency; it is a reputation score of the Sentinels indicating how much they have helped the hacking victims or how much they have contributed in adding security intelligence to the Decentralized Threat Reputation Database. Indirect contribution to the community such as creating articles to enlighten the public on issues of cybersecurity or translating such articles to other languages can also earn Sentinel Point. Sentinel Point can be exchanged to UPP token, the circulating currency in Sentinel Protocol. UPP token is a currency that is used to remit payment for subscribing to advanced security features of Sentinel Protocol.
Let the ‘utility token’ be used for utility services.
Let’s think of a live music concert with limited ticket supply. There could be fans who deeply wish to go to the concert and they are both capable and willing to pay the official ticket price. However, if black market traders were to purchase the tickets early in bulk, the commercial ticket price could become unreasonably expensive. As a result, those who would truly benefit from going to the concert may become unable to purchase tickets and would miss the concert. Other people who don’t even know the names of the group’s members are the ones who end up with the concert tickets.
You may have noticed that many blockchain projects have suffered negative effects when the token’s price dropped after once having an inordinately high price caused by short-term margin traders. Within Sentinel Protocol ecosystem, it is extremely important to us that our token is utilized as a utility token. For our token’s economy, this is a key principle for us.
While Sentinel Portal, TRDB, API integration are freely available, more advanced security features such as Machine Learning-based anomaly detection or Distributed-sandboxing, as well as case submissions require UPP token. Just like concert ticket should be used to watch the concert rather than make profits, we believe the UPP token should be readily available for The Sentinels reflecting the accrued benefits of their security contributions to our users and to the crypto users who will truly benefit from what Sentinel Protocol offers.
3. Aligning Our Project Focus with Future Investors
We think that significant security benefits can be achieved by enabling the active support and participation of cybersecurity experts from the project’s beginning and as a result of aggressive adoption of our platform by crypto wallets, payments and exchanges. Therefore, instead of designing and executing conventional bounty marketing and whitelisting as other crypto projects normally do, we will be focusing on:
- Bringing the real world cybersecurity experts to Sentinel Protocol
- Establishing partnerships with exchanges, wallets and payment services
We have been receiving a great volume of inquiries from individuals and organizations about how much they can contribute to market awareness and hype related to our project, but this is not the type of support we are seeking. When reaching out to us, please let us know how you can help us specifically on these two aspects of the project. Then, we will be more than happy to respond and develop a conversation from there. Please understand that we may not respond to generic messages that merely indicate interest or how much investment can be made without .
4. Public Sale and Contribution
We expect that our public sale will begin mid-April. For Sentinel Protocol, there is no free airdrop or whitelisting. Instead, we are proud to announce the launch of The Pre-Sentinels recruitment program. Again, our goal is to help everyone to have better understanding of cybersecurity and to be able to keep themselves safe and secure. After all, any crypto user could perhaps become a cybersecurity evangelist. The initial Sentinels will be composed of trusted cybersecurity experts only; but after a period of time, everyone by leveraging their individual skills and knowledge may apply to become a Sentinel.
There are two categories you can participate in The Pre-Sentinels.
- Cybersecurity experts Please inform us of your organization, work experience, cybersecurity certificates or any other information that could help us verify you are eligible for The Sentinels. If you have a full time cybersecurity job, please indicate that also. Note that you are expected to participate in beta testing activities.
- Evangelists Please explain Sentinel Protocol in your own words and share it to whom you care in whatever form you like. Then, send us a screenshot (URL) where/how it is shared. It could be on your telegram groups, social media, blog, or any type of online space that you think it’s worth mentioning in terms of Sentinel Protocol. Be creative and use ELI5 approach. If your words could accurately and creatively help deliver our project, it will be used in a tagline, boilerplate or elevator pitch. We will share the chosen ones on our official channels and give credits. Note that this is not about how influential you are. This is about how much you understand what Sentinel Protocol is and how it works.
Up to 1% of the total token will be distributed among the selected cybersecurity experts and evangelists. The recruitment period will be from when this blog is published to March 30 11:59pm SGT. Anyone who has been selected will be notified in person. Selected people will be given UPP token through airdrop immediately before the public sale.
We’re Hiring!
We are hiring a full-time Communications Manager who will work on raising security awareness and delivering our project to the crypto/security world. This is NOT a CM (community manager) position. We may not be the most prompt team to provide answers to your questions but we want to communicate in a quality manner.
If you know someone who would be interested in this position or if you want to pursue Uppsala Foundation’s vision together with us, please drop us an email at info@uppsala.foundation with the title [Hiring].
Communications Manager
Primary objectives:
- Manage Sentinel Protocol’s owned media (website, blog, social media, newsletter)
- Engage with shared media (crypto community, cybersecurity community)
- Lead the content creation and engagement
Requirements:
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- A strong passion for blockchain and cybersecurity
- Native in English and Chinese
- Preferably based in Singapore
- Preferably artistic and creative
