Can a bitcoin be hacked? The question of hacking is the first to come one’s mind when we talk about a popular cryptocurrency like bitcoin and the answer becomes more important when it comes to investing in bitcoins. The answer to this question is beautifully answered by Andreas Antonopoulos who presented a lecture on the bitcoin security, bubble boy and the sewer rat. According to Andreas, all forms of cryptography can be broken and all forms of cryptography are eventually broken. This is a truism.
Bitcoins are stored in a digital wallet and is traded in the form or digital currency as a coin base. Even though the developers are constantly monitoring and upgrading the digital wallet and the digital currency yet there are hackers who sneak into others wallets to swipe the coin base. The two factor identification has been used in making bitcoin transactions, one is making use of email through a verification code sent to the email of the wallet owner and second is making use of their phone numbers where a confirmation code is sent to the mobile of the user. If the hacker can get this two information of any wallet user, he can easily access the wallet and hack it.
Due to the decentralized feature of bitcoin and its easy and fast transfers without extra charge of money over the transactions. It has largely attracted the investors to put money in it. Since the concept was new and lots of money drew into it, also gave an opportunity to the hackers to attack on loop holes in the technology which is quiet new and still in a process of development. In a short span of its introduction, there has been many big scams which were never thought of because of the above mentioned reason.
The bitcoin is the most common crypto currency used nowadays. It is an electronic currency which is transferred from user to user on the peer to peer bitcoin network without any intermediate or central control. Thus makes it out of the scope of any government control and hence no regulations act on it which usually controls the financial institutions and money transfers in any state. It uses it own type of rules and regulations. Bitcoin transactions are verified through cryptography by network nodes which are recorded on public distributed ledger called the blockchain which is a distributed, decentralized, public ledger.
Use of Blockchain technology
The hacking of bitcoin has been a concern ever since its introduction and is still discussed and deliberated. One the one hand it uses the technology of blockchain which is the record transactions in the form of blocks connected with each other and the records stored are permanent and nearly impossible to alter or tamper. Having said that, yet there is possibility of hacking at the various stages of trading it. Thus makes a serious concern for those who have invested in it.