The anonymous, unregulated nature of cryptocurrency – which for many is a selling point – is also what makes crypto oh-so-popular with hackers. It is estimated that in 2021, crypto scammers stole around $14 billion in cryptocurrency worldwide. And it’s not only newcomers who are getting blindsided, even those with the blockchain know-how have fallen prey to pyramid schemes, phishing attacks via email, social media (or even dating apps) and pseudocoins.
“The concept with blockchain is that it gives decentralized capability to transfer or to manage assets. That is the difference between blockchain technology and what we are currently using today,” explains Oded Vanunu, the head of products vulnerability research at Check Point Software.
“With blockchain, everyone who wants to enter the network is equal – everyone owns the same database and every transaction is documented and approved by all parties. It’s secure, cryptographic and – in theory, unbreakable.”
But since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009, a lot has changed. There are now over 18,000 cryptocurrencies. Nonfungible tokens (or NFTs), which are built on blockchains and can be bought with crypto, have become far more than a way to collect digital art – businesses are using NFTs to create more transparent supply chains and San Marino, a small country in Europe, turned to the blockchain to digitize Covid-19 vaccine passports.
This story is from the April - May 2022 edition of Forbes Africa.
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This story is from the April - May 2022 edition of Forbes Africa.
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