TL; DR
Full story
The amount of excitement our office has about this Chainlink SIM swap news is a little embarrassing.
Kevin, our intern, even brought confetti, which seemed a bit intense. (On brand for him.)
But what on earth are we talking about, you may be thinking?
Chainlink is the data oracle company we love writing about (as we did here).
‘Oracles’ take real-world data (e.g. weather forecasts) and put it on the blockchain, and Chainlink happens to be the leading project in this area.
So what are SIM swaps?
Hackers contact a mobile provider → pretend to be someone they are not (but provide enough information to fake this) → receive a new SIM card.
Once they have your mobile number, they can start resetting passwords and accessing accounts left, right and centre.
Even people like ETH Daddy (i.e. Vitalik Buterin) have done that became a victim for SIM swaps!
Okay, so where does Chainlink come in?
A Spanish phone company, Telefónica, has teamed up with Chainlink to essentially create the Web3 equivalent of 2FA.
When you request mobile verification before processing a transaction, Chainlink can contact Telefónica and check that no improvised changes have been made recently to the SIM card/number.
Something to get excited about!
Because the threat of being hacked is one of the biggest deterrents to Web3 adoption.
