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Recently we had an interesting conversation with Andrew Ciaccia, CMO of Interlock Network, which led us to discoveries and insights on the security landscape in web3.
It appears that Interlock currently has little-to-no competition with regard to their main product, but what they do have is a unique approach to protecting the average crypto-native user. They’ve created a collaborative security model that facilitates the sharing of threat intelligence data between consumers and enterprises, resulting in a safer internet for all.
Interlock is building a two-sided cybersecurity marketplace. They give enterprise-grade security tools to consumers who are incentivized to share security data. They sell this data as threat intelligence, in a $10+ billion per year market. Think Brave, but for cybersecurity.
Regarding the current core activities of Interlock, their strong team of serial startup builders and cyber security pros who have been active for over 10 years is currently building one of the first web3 security browser extensions called ThreatSlayer.
ThreatSlayer is an enterprise-grade threat detection and prevention tool aimed at the average mainstream user that utilizes AI Threat Detection technology to catch and block browser-based attacks, like phishing attacks and social engineering, the primary threat vectors for financial harm to web2 and web3 users alike.
One of the main aspects that drastically differentiate Interlock Network from others is the community involvement and a highly gamified ecosystem designed to maximize the rate of malicious site detection and incentivized threat sharing.
After an easy installation and no setup required, the ThreatSlayer extension immediately starts web analysis in the background, and opens doors to a community of fellow users who are incentivized to report threats that the AI Threat Detection misses.
At the center of the Interlock web3 ecosystem stands the $ILOCK token, which ThreatSlayer users can stake against websites that they think are malicious.
New AI threat detection techniques, coupled with the latest threat feeds that come from a number of sources that track such activity, and now a community of armchair web security researchers make Interlock's browser extension a powerful antidote against different types of attacks.
The Interlock tokenomics are covered by four key players: security stakers, extension users, data buyers, and enterprise customers.
Extension users share data for rewards, stakers stake on suspicious sites to receive a yield on $ILOCK, while data buyers and enterprises stake for data licensing and other discounts and complete revenue-based $ILOCK buy backs from Interlock's community treasury.
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Andrew explained that, after the release of ThreatSlayer, Interlock will build a pipeline and release three B2B security products that will generate revenue and define their vision. A browser defense platform (the enterprise-version of threat slayer, threat intelligence platform, and an API of their AI Threat Detection.
He also said that Interlock currently has two enterprise pilots and a DEX will be integrating itnerlock’s security products into their users wallets for added protection.
In the case of successful launches and widespread adoption, such a set of inventive products could help tighten the large gap that scammers and crackers tunnel through to extract the most they can from unsuspecting users.
$ILOCK is launching on a a privacy-enhancing blockchain called Aleph Zero, which the Interlock team picked because of its use of multi-party computation and cross-chain bridges, as well as the possibility to decentralize system logic without revealing how heuristics work - similar to being proprietary, but in the good name of user protection.
Blockchain data is available to all, including transactions and balances, but it can be obfuscated by Interlock in ways to refrain from revealing sensitive information to malicious actors.
Simply put, Interlock chose Aleph Zero because of its robust list of privacy and security features driven by the now famous zero-knowledge proof and zk-SNARK cryptography.
Andrew told us about the excitement that drives community members to participate, and, on some level, even compete with each other – the team keeps seeing users share screenshots showing the number of threats flagged, or rewards received, which appears to also bring reputation-based incentives to the user.
Although the focus of Interlock is now mainly on dangerous websites that may extract users' funds if used without caution or at all, the future vision of the project is much larger.
A rather unique and insightful whitepaper of Interlock lets the reader to understand that the internet security and user protection problem is much larger than the mainstream sees it, and the ways of battling it have not been effective at scale, thus new paradigms of viable, open and transparent, likely decentralized security solution adoption are desperately needed today.
The Interlock team understands that tech startups, just like criminals, see internet surfers as exploitation targets, which is one of the reasons behind starting the project.
With these obstacles in mind, Interlock's roadmap showcases several milestones to be reached, including the current MVP beta stage of ThreatSlayer being live on the top browsers, the current partnership phase, a Q4 staking, $ILOCK token utility launch, and enterprise solution release, and a new decentralized web3 security DeSec platform for everyone.
Additionally, Interlock recently released a Discord bot called Bouncer that catches malicious URLs and neutralizes them if they are found in a relevant database.
Interlock Network is being built by YC-alumni, and highly prolific security engineers. Their pre-sale 1 was oversubscribed to $2.2 million in the very beginning of 2021, and the project is currently in the process of raising pre-sale 2 that will assist in marking the milestones outlined in the project's ambitious roadmap. Interlock plans to launch its token in the next 4 months.
