A quick, basic question on cryptocurrency.

[lucc11]

Hi friends,
First of all, I am newbie who wants to know about cryptocurrencies and bitcoins for academic purpose only. I am curious about cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are gaining popularity. I have read a few articles and journals regarding bitcoins and their security. To an extent, I felt they were too secure that cyber criminals use them as the medium of transaction. An example is where they asked fro bitcoins an exchange of data recovery after millions of systems were affected by wannacry ransomware. Recently, I came across the security threats of bitcoins and it has surprised me.

I watched a video about botnet attacks on the bitcoin and how easy and likely it is: http://www.storagepipe.com/blog/DDoS-Bitcoin-Brute-Force-Malware/ . It made me realize that they are not as safe and secure as I thought they were. But still, I think that there has to be some kind of security measures that can be taken up to protect from these threats.
What do you have to say about it? I would like to have your words of advice and suggestions about it.
PS: I am not interested in bitcoin transactions. This is just out of curiosity and for academic purpose.

[DooMAD]

Hi friends,
First of all, I am newbie who wants to know about cryptocurrencies and bitcoins for academic purpose only. I am curious about cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are gaining popularity. I have read a few articles and journals regarding bitcoins and their security. To an extent, I felt they were too secure that cyber criminals use them as the medium of transaction. An example is where they asked fro bitcoins an exchange of data recovery after millions of systems were affected by wannacry ransomware. Recently, I came across the security threats of bitcoins and it has surprised me.

I watched a video about botnet attacks on the bitcoin and how easy and likely it is: http://www.storagepipe.com/blog/DDoS-Bitcoin-Brute-Force-Malware/ . It made me realize that they are not as safe and secure as I thought they were. But still, I think that there has to be some kind of security measures that can be taken up to protect from these threats.
What do you have to say about it? I would like to have your words of advice and suggestions about it.
PS: I am not interested in bitcoin transactions. This is just out of curiosity and for academic purpose.

Mining botnets used to be a prevalent issue back in the days of CPU mining, but things have long since evolved.  We're at the point now where a botnet would be largely ineffective unless it somehow managed to infect many millions of devices.  Botnets began to decline in popularity with criminals once miners started utilising GPUs.  Now they are almost completely gone, with the advent of ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) in mining.  They just aren't a profitable form of attack anymore.  It's safe to say you can ignore those now.

Ransomware, on the other hand, is indeed become more and more of an issue.  It's difficult to say what can realistically be done to combat that, since the average person isn't particularly security conscious, and even the people who are can still sometimes become victims.  I suspect this threat will largely be down to the firewall / virus scanning / security software companies to combat.

As for why Bitcoin is gaining popularity, I've outlined a few of the reasons here (about half way down the page).

[HabBear]

What do you have to say about it?

Every new "thing" that exists is subject to exploitation...especially when that thing is money. Bitcoin is no different. But consider this, what currency has in place as part of its fundamental design a mechanism to prevent counterfeiting and fraud? None. There's no other currency in the world that can offer a 100% guarantee that the coins you receive are the actual currency and not counterfeit.

Every fiat currency in the world is faked and those fake notes are put into the system which end up defrauding hard working people. Bitcoin will never do that.

As for the ransom attacks. The currency doesn't make that happen, people make that happen. If you leave your car parked in the street with the windows down and the keys inside and someone takes your car, is that the car's fault? Know...it's yours.

The media will always try to find ways to discredit new technologies, people, and processes. It's what sells "newspapers"...but think independently about this. There are thousands of transactions on the blockchain every single day. And only once in a while is one, just one an instance of someone taking advantage of someone else.

My money is still on bitcoin. Literally.

[lucc11]

Thank you!
It's true that no currency, despite all the security measures taken are safe from counterfeits and frauds. I have always felt that certain people are always reluctant to accept the advantages of a new technology, especially something that can become very important sooner or later. Such people tend to focus on the negatives, as if the existing methods have zero negatives. May be bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like ethereum are going through that kind of a stage and which is why many countries are still reluctant to accept its validity.
I am sure it's not going to be easy for people to protect themselves against ransomware. I agree with you as threats like ransomware are caused by people and their lack of proper knowledge and awareness.
With my little knowledge, I think cryptocurrencies should be more popular than they are today. I hope it will be, sooner or later.