Bitcoin Security ! Does it exist?
You decide.
A short while ago someone pulled off the largest heist in the history of Bitcoin, the virtual currency that equates to cash on the internet. The illegal drug bazaar “Sheep Marketplace” was plundered, either by hackers or insiders, and about $100 million worth of Bitcoins were stolen from their customers.
Bitcoin heists are actually becoming reasonably common as more hackers, or pyramid scheme owners become aware of how this can be achieved. In June of 2011, a user named Allinvain was the victim of what was possibly the first recorded major Bitcoin theft. Allinvain awoke to find that a hacker had stolen about half a million dollars’ worth of bitcoins. “I feel like killing myself now,” he wrote at the time. We have to remember that much of the value of Bitcoin is in the fact that it is untraceable and being used to launder money. Hence the reason that all major countries are getting involved with regulating this totally open environment to protect the average person trying to invest in something that actually has very little value. I personally believe that the value is artificially being driven up for this very reason. Now you have it now you don’t!
There have been dozens of Bitcoin thefts since 2011. The supposedly high-return investment fund Bitcoin Savings & Trust turned out to be a pyramid scheme, its owner charged with ripping off investors for $4.5 million in bitcoins. MyBitcoin, a “wallet” service that stored bitcoins like a bank account, disappeared with about $1 million worth of users’ bitcoins. Several of the most trusted and well-known Bitcoin companies, including the Mt. Gox and the now-defunct Bitcoinica exchanges, have also suffered high-profile thefts.
Full story by “The Verge”, “How to steal Bitcoin in three easy steps”
If you intend to invest in Bitcoin, be careful that you do not get involved in a scheme, or it could cost you your retirement fund.
