Why Fake Crypto Buyers Are About to Get Expensive

In a November 13 research post, Circle describes Anduin, an experimental ranking system that scores providers by who has already paid them, and by whether those payers overlap with the buyer’s own. The design goal is narrow and specific: force anyone trying to fake a provider’s popularity to spend money on businesses they do not own.

Fake customers cost almost nothing to make

A Sybil attack is one operator posing as many participants. In an agent marketplace that means spinning up buyer wallets and paying your own service from each of them, so a storefront that has never served a real customer looks busy. The transfers are real on-chain, but the money never leaves the operator’s hands; network fees are the o...