Polkadot has implemented a rewards program to deter and punish scammers. Web3 Foundation, the organization behind Polkadot and other projects, has an Anti-Scam team specifically committed to combating fraudulent activities. It provides incentives for its members to assist in the cleanup of the Polkadot ecosystem. The department has planned out a system to pay out these rewards from the Polkadot Treasury.
The Polkadot anti-scam initiative mission and timeline
The program began at the beginning of 2022 and has since expanded to offer various “bounties” to community members of the Polkadot network who successfully report malicious websites and phishing operations. The initiative’s goal is to make Polkadot a secure environment for all users. However, the efforts are not only about blocking access to fraudulent websites. The community participants proposed extending the reach of the network’s anti-scamming efforts by making full use of all of its resources.
As a result of its creation, it now includes a wide range of participant proposals as actions that the community can take to improve the security of the ecosystem. It not only pays bounties to those who create educational content for users but also rewards the community when users discover and report scam sites, false social media profiles, and phishing apps.
With the integration of Polkadot’s phishing repo, security products, including wallets and exchanges, as well as antivirus software, become part of that support system. Other tasks include building an Anti-Scam Dashboard that serves as a nerve centre for all anti-scam efforts in the Polkadot ecosystem and preventing attacks on Discord servers.
To officially transfer responsibility away from Web3 Foundation and Parity and into the hands of the community, the Polkadot Anti-Scam Team was established in June 2022 to serve as the “governing body” of all anti-scam operations. There are five community members, two representatives from the Web3 Foundation and one associate member from the Polkadot Council.
The outcome
Since its inception in March 2022, the Anti-Scam Bounty has awarded over 16,000 DOT in prizes. As of the end of October 2022, 5,524 websites will have been reported as malicious and shut down. Polkadot’s phishing repository also provides members with a list of known fraudulent websites. Since the anti-scam initiatives began in April 2021, the blacklist has grown from a few hundred entries to about 14,000 by the end of October 2022.