(Alessandro Rugolo) One of the businesses of the moment seems to be investing in cryptocurrency.
The best known are Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin and about 700 other types of digital currency, among the latter there is also one called Youbit, owned by Yapian, a South Korean company. In the last year it seems that South Koreans have found themselves passionate about cryptocurrency, but at the same time they have discovered how unsafe it is to invest in something as ephemeral as the Youbit.
In fact, the Yapian company was the subject of two hacker attacks within the same year, which led to bankruptcy!
And here again it turns out that the villain is that rogue state of North Korea!
Once again because it seems that North Korea has the most fierce hackers on the market, at least to hear the statements of American analysts.
The news is immediately taken up with emphasis by everyone.
But what do the evidence tell us?
In the face of the bombastic declarations of the main newspapers we do not need any evidence!
Yet it would be enough to look at what is happening to have, at least, a minimum of reasonable doubt!
So let us take a look at what happens in the world around cryptocurrency, the possibilities of theft and the value on the market.
I believe that even the most distracted man on the street has hardly escaped the fact that Bitcoin, the best known of several hundred digital currencies, has experienced enormous growth in value in the last period, creating, perhaps unwittingly, a number of new rich even among Sunday investors.
Could it ever be?
No. And in fact in the last period, if it is true that Bitcoin has reached exorbitant figures exceeding $ 18.000 in value, it is also true that cryptocurrency thefts have increased.
But let's see the facts:
- last December 20 the hackers (North Koreans?) Hit the Yapian company;
- on December 21 the US accused North Korea of the hacker attack, at least so claims the "the Wall Street Journal".
A few days earlier, the December 6 to be precise, a theft of Bitcoin was perpetrated against NiceHash, an electronic market for issuing and selling cryptocurrency based in Slovenia, which claimed to have suffered a hacker attack with which they are were subtracted 4.700 bitcoin of its customers for a value of about 62 million (on The Independent there is talk of about 64 billions of dollars but going to the source we understand that it is an error).
In November, on the night of 20, another theft against Tether, a cryptocurrency market based in Hong Kong and the United States. This time the theft amounts to about 30 million dollars in turnover.
Also in November, it emerged that some bugs in cryptowallets (cryptocurrency wallets) issued by Parity (a London-based company that deals with the exchange of Ethereum) caused the "freezing" of about 280 million dollars.
If you continue the analysis backwards you will see a worrying increasing number of attacks on cryptocurrency and everything that revolves around it and what appears to be normal given the enormous development of the sector.
So what should we do for the future? Can you invest with reasonable certainty in cryptocurrency? This is the question that everyone starts
Probably the right answer does not exist.
As for me, I believe that the attacks will continue to occur and will be more and more frequent and it is not certain that they are the work of the "bad" hackers of North Korea.
Perhaps, those that emerge are only a part of the financial war that is being fought between the real world and cryptocurrency (and between cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency!) A war in which, as usual, there will be collateral damage to date unpredictable.