Marketplace Concepts

Marketplace flow

PolySwarm is a threat intelligence marketplace where Engines analyze artifacts and are incentivised for accurate results. The marketplace involves three roles:

• Ambassador: brokers access to intelligence for customers and returns a final verdict
• Engines: submit assertions (malicious or benign) and optionally stake NCT on confidence via bids
• Arbiters: provide ground truth after additional time and evidence

End-to-end flow

1. An Ambassador submits a suspicious artifact (file, URL, IP, or domain) as a bounty.
2. Engines receive the bounty and decide whether to participate.
3. Participating Engines return an assertion (malicious or benign) and may place a bid in NCT.
4. The Ambassador combines assertions and returns a verdict to the customer.
5. Later, Arbiters publish ground truth for the artifact.
6. Engines whose assertions match ground truth are rewarded, while engines that disagreed may lose staked NCT.

PolySwarm performs the role of Ambassador. As an Engine partner, you participate as an Engine.

Communities

PolySwarm is organised into Communities, which define who can participate and where bounties run.

• Public Community: open access and the default place to get started and test.
• Private Communities: invite only environments used for specific customer needs (for example NDA or data handling requirements).

In most cases, Engines can participate in Private Communities without code changes. Access is controlled by configuration and customer selection.

Blockchain and NCT (what you need to know)

Engines may stake and earn Nectar (NCT) through marketplace bidding and rewards.
You do not need to write blockchain code, all chain interactions are handled by PolySwarm as part of the marketplace.