Bitcoins, launched in 2009, are here to stay. While this did not hold until recently, most nations started to embrace Bitcoin. Many countries have taken active steps to legalize the use of Bitcoins under financial and tax laws. In contrast, others are slightly sceptical and concerned regarding the misuse of bitcoins for illegal transactions and money laundering.
Bitcoins are indeed less expensive to buy, easier to mine, and they are still very much there despite the negative publicity around them. Today it is seen as a resilient cryptocurrency that remains the world’s most popular. Indeed, Bitcoins are fast rising in use and popularity, and blockchain technology has been robust enough to keep the cryptocurrency safe. The volatility and popularity of bitcoin have led to some companies no longer accepting bitcoin payments while others, such as Overstock, Tesla, Microsoft, PayPal, recognize bitcoin payments. Bitcoins are especially popular with the millennial generation as the transaction fees are much lower, and there is no need to provide any personal information.
The key question surrounding this topic are:
Bitcoins – Are they safe?
Like any other currency, investors and criminals are more than interested in cryptocurrency. As cryptocurrency crimes have increased in recent years, that raises the important question of how safe it is to use bitcoins. Cryptocurrency news and data reports thefts of investors’ coins and scams in crypto investing. But then those scams and frauds are also taking place with current standard trades like this trading platform.
Bitcoin’s trade takes place over a distributed ledger technology (DLT), or blockchain, with no single point of failure. Cryptocurrencies implement cryptography to establish pseudonymous and decentralized currencies. Bitcoin uses SHA-256 encryption for its transactions, and the fundamental characteristics of its blockchain enable the bitcoin security protocol. Thus, it is not easy to tamper with the transactions.
Once a block is created on the chain, it gets added in the ledger, and all the blocks are interconnected. Thus, the cryptographic system makes transactions irreversible. The anonymity and the transparency of the Bitcoin blockchain make it difficult for anyone to cheat the system. Bitcoin’s DLT transparency exposes all the transactions to the public, but because of the anonymity of the participants, there is a limited possibility of a data breach within the financial systems. As there is no name and address used, identity theft is minimized. In addition, as the Bitcoin network is decentralized, it is pointless to hack into anyone server.
Despite the blockchain’s strengths and limited vulnerabilities, attackers and hackers are always trying to exploit the crypto exchanges. One reason is that traders and investors of bitcoins do not get enough insurance and security on crypto-exchanges and -wallets as with the banks. Thus, it is no surprise to see bitcoins stolen from wallets with the help of viruses. Cryptojacking or Cryptomining malware attacks continue to plague internet devices and resources and are hijacked to mine for cryptocurrencies.
Efforts are being made to make bitcoins more secure and safe from any scam and theft as the cryptocurrency industry has garnered much greater attention in the past decade. The entire digital currency exchange is vulnerable to malicious hacks. As the cryptocurrency space grows and expounds at an astonishing rate, so do the thieves and hackers.
Making bitcoins safer
Cryptocurrency controls make it difficult to interfere with bitcoin transactions and are being reinforced further to reduce exploiting vulnerabilities. Efforts are being made to ensure that bitcoin use is safe and secure.
Cryptocurrency platforms and investors need to be more prepared and vigilant and take preventive measures to protect their bitcoins.
Critical safeguards and best practices
- Treat the bitcoin wallet as a real one and keep a small amount of bitcoin in the wallet for online use and the principal balance in a separate offline wallet.
- Keep the offline or cold wallets at a safe place. The OS for the offline wallet should not cache and should be virus-free.
- Cryptocurrency security experts suggest not to keep any digital currency on an exchange to minimize the risk of phishing attacks and malware.
- Use hardware wallets which are physical devices such as a flash drive to store your private keys and are used only when completing a transaction online.
- Employ double authentication for any computers or mobile devices that run wallet software, for example, a PIN as well as a fingerprint recognition.
Concluding thoughts
These are some of the key aspects related to Bitcoin and Bitcoin investment. If you want to diversify in crypto profile, then this is the right time to start your crypto journey.
Leave a Comment