Author: defioasis
Introduction: This paper compares on-chain data platforms such as Dune, Flipside, Nansen and Arkham from many aspects, and believes that although Arkham's tokenized business model is innovative, it is not universal.
$ARKM has been listed on Binance, and the current price is $0.73. The qualified addresses that have not invited users can receive 197.4295 ARKM, which is about $145. To be honest, I am very satisfied with the unexpected pork knuckle meal.
As a data analysis platform, Arkham does not adopt a paid model for advanced features like similar platforms such as Nansen or 0xScope. Instead, it solves the revenue problem through token economics on the basis of being a free public product. In the field of Crypto, on-chain data can be said to be a gold mine. The interpretation of on-chain data can bring many investment and arbitrage opportunities. The use of data analysis platforms is mostly based on real needs. Therefore, the number of users in this track is more real and the quality will be higher.
TL;DR
According to the degree of openness, data analysis platforms can be roughly divided into two categories. One is a fully open data analysis platform, where users can define it themselves, such as Dune Analytics, Flipside, and Footprint Analytics; the other is a packaged data product service, where users can query within a limited definition, such as Nansen, 0xScope (Watchers), and Arkham. Currently, all six platforms have received financing, of which Dune Analytics, Flipside, Nansen, and Arkham have all received cumulative financing of more than 10 million US dollars. Coinbase is the most active investor in this field, and it is involved in the first three.
Judging from the number of public chains supported, data analysis platforms that require users to make their own support significantly more public chains than packaged platforms, and the latter require higher data collation and service capabilities of startups. Currently, Dune Analytics supports 13 public chains, Flipside supports 18, Footprint supports 27, Nansen supports 11, Watchers supports 3, and Arkham supports 8. Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum are commonly supported public chains, but there is less support for zk-based public chains and Bitcoin.
From the functional perspective, Nansen is the most comprehensive of the three platforms. From the token level, you can see the increase and decrease of Smart Money over a period of time, the inflow and outflow of CEX and DEX exchanges, the overall and individual inflow and outflow of stablecoins, the overall average holding time, profit and loss, Smart Money of token holders, and the balance changes and transaction status of individual holders; from the smart contract level, you can clearly track the APY provided by popular contracts and LP trading pairs, as well as the token/NFT interaction within the contract; the label system is complete, and Smart Money has become the daily focus of the community. Compared with Nansen, Watchers and Arkham are much younger. The biggest feature of Watchers is that it provides a data visualization map, which reduces the time cost of on-chain research. Another point is that it supplements the entity analysis of correlation under the label system to help professional investors explore addresses that are outside the label but closely related to the label. Arkham is the only data analysis platform among the three that does not support NFTs, and it focuses more on the situation of addresses/entities at the individual level, so Arkham basically cannot see some global data. The functions on Arkham can basically be found on Nansen. Like Watchers, it also launched a visual data map, but in addition to being free, it also has a unique archiving function that can provide the investment portfolio situation and map of addresses/entities at any two points in history. (Dune, Flipside and Footprint can mostly produce applicable panels through SQL and creative intentions, so they will not be discussed for the time being.)
Before Arkham, it was generally believed that data analysis platforms did not have a high direct demand for tokens. Platforms that provide data packaging services mainly adopt a paid membership model, which is more similar to Web2, and only provide limited functions for free users as a trial. Differentiated functions and services are provided according to different levels of payment plans, but the high prices often discourage ordinary investors. Nansen has three levels of payment gradients (monthly payment), which are $150, $1500 and $3000 per month respectively; Watchers provides more functions to free users than Nansen, which are $198 and $2000 per month respectively, and also provides customized payment. On the other hand, DIY data platforms are trapped in the frustration of only being able to make public products. Data analysts are often on the side of being freeloaders without rewards, especially for independent data analysts, who have the ability but no motivation. Currently, the business models of Dune, Flipside and Footprint are relatively similar, allowing users to use them for free, and charging creators or data teams with further needs to improve response speed and provide better CSV and API services.
Arkham combines token economics to provide another path for business exploration. First and foremost, it is important to combine the core function of data analysis to create scenarios and demands for token consumption. In response to this, Arkham launched the Intel Exchange. The Intel Exchange is an important place to link on-chain data analysts with ordinary users. Its daily usage scenarios are similar to the behavior of the current on-chain detective ZachXBT, who helps ordinary users identify scams and assists in recovering defrauded funds on Twitter through the analysis of on-chain data. However, ZachXBT's free assistance is based on good ethics and does not seek rewards, but it is basically difficult to find a second person who does such a thing for free. Arkham provides a channel for experts with excellent on-chain analysis capabilities to realize their knowledge. Whether it is a security issue or an investment issue, as long as the intelligence that can find the answer through on-chain information can be used for trading. After the platform is built, the introduction of ARKM is a natural process. Any user can pay to obtain the valuable information they want from data analysts by using ARKM. Buyers can offer rewards and sellers can auction. Arkham charges a certain fee to both parties of the transaction to maintain the long-term operation of the platform - Arkham charges a 2.5% maker fee for submitted listings and auction payments, and a 5% taker fee for bounty payments and successful auction bids.
However, the model of data analysis platforms launching tokens may not be universal. There is a classic "Sell me this pen" question in "The Wolf of Wall Street". What is important is not the pen, but the need and scenario for creating the use of the pen. It is not difficult for any Web3 data analysis platform to launch tokens, but it is not easy to create usage scenarios for tokens. In essence, Arkham is not launching tokens based on the positioning of a data analysis platform, but on the core basis of data analysis, it creates a platform for value transactions using on-chain data, and the medium of platform value transactions is the need and scenario of this "pen". In addition, after Arkham logged into Binance IEO, the founder of Dune recently reiterated that Dune would not issue coins and launched an ironic NFT.
