Why bitcoin is used by hackers
in May 2017, computer network virus attacks have spread to 74 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, Spain, Italy, etc.
1. Complete decentralization, without issuing institutions, it is impossible to manipulate the number of issues. Its distribution and circulation are realized through open-source P2P algorithm
2. Anonymity, tax exemption and supervision free
3. Robustness. Bitcoin is completely dependent on P2P network and has no distribution center, so it cannot be shut down externally. Bitcoin price may fluctuate and collapse, and many governments may declare it illegal, but bitcoin and its huge P2P network will not disappear
4. Borderless and cross-border. Cross border remittance will go through layers of exchange control agencies, and the transaction records will be recorded by many parties. But if you trade with bitcoin, enter the digital address directly, click the mouse and wait for the P2P network to confirm the transaction, a lot of money will pass. It does not go through any regulatory agencies and will not leave any cross-border transaction records
5. It is difficult for the cat to survive. Because bitcoin algorithm is completely open source, anyone can download the source code, modify some parameters, recompile, and create a new P2P currency. But these counterfeit currencies are fragile and vulnerable to 51% attacks. Any indivial or organization, as long as it controls 51% of the computing power of a P2P currency network, can manipulate transactions and currency value at will, which will be a devastating blow to P2P currency. Many Shanzhai coins die in this link. The bitcoin network is robust enough. If you want to control 51% of the computing power of the bitcoin network, the number of CPUs / GPUs required will be astronomical.
Recently, a kind of malicious software that locks up computers is spreading rapidly all over the world. At present, tens of thousands of computers in nearly 100 countries and regions have been attacked. The hackers locked the files in the computer and demanded to pay the equivalent of $300 in bitcoin to unlock the files“ "Bitcoin virus", a virus sweeping the world, suddenly brushed the screen last night. A number of campus networks in Zhejiang Province have encountered similar attacks. Among them, bitcoin, as one of the new payment means, is used by hackers as a payment tool for blackmail
after the regulatory storm in January and February and the big rise and fall behind, bitcoin once again appeared a wave of sluggish market in March: from about 8000 to less than 7000. However, since then, bitcoin ushered in a wave of soaring prices
according to the currency bank's market, the "bull market" of bitcoin started in April. From the price of one bitcoin to 7000 yuan in early April, it rocketed through the threshold of 10000 yuan to one bitcoin
on May 10, the market software showed that the price of bitcoin successfully broke through the 10000 mark, up to 10245. However, since February this year, when the domestic regulatory authorities asked to suspend the withdrawal of bitcoin, there has been a "price gap" between the domestic and foreign bitcoin prices: the foreign bitcoin price was as high as US $1779 / piece, equivalent to about RMB 12275 / piece, and there is a gap of about 2000 yuan between the domestic and foreign bitcoin prices
behind the sharp rise in prices, there is a sharp fall in trading volume. According to public data, the trading volume of fire coin on May 9 was less than 15000 pieces, 40% less than the previous peak day, and 0.3% of the single day trading volume when it reached a new high on January 5 at the beginning of the year
at present, the vast majority of digital currency transactions are concted in exchanges. Among the numerous exchanges, bitfinex, binance, okex and so on are well-known
However, bitcoin and other digital currencies, as decentralized assets, have to be traded in a centralized exchange, which seems to have hidden contradictions and dangers1. Problems and challenges of stock exchanges=“ //www.yuanxue365.com/en/img_fd039245d688d43fdf16c83b761ed21b0ff43bbf ">
in February 2014, Mt. GOx, the world's largest bitcoin exchange at that time, was stolen 850000 bitcoins, and the price of bitcoin suffered a" cliff "crash on that day. Later, it was revealed that Mt. GOx was in fact a thief, and only 7000 bitcoins were actually stolen
in August 2016, bitfinex, the largest U.S. dollar bitcoin trading platform, suffered a security vulnerability, resulting in the theft of 120000 bitcoins, which was worth $65 million at that time. If converted into the price in December 2017, it would be worth nearly $2 billion
on December 19, 2017, South Korea's youbit exchange was attacked by hackers and lost 4000 bitcoins, and the exchange declared bankruptcy
on December 21, 2017, the Ukrainian liqui exchange was stolen 60000 bitcoins, and the unit price of bitcoin plummeted by US $2000
in 2018, such a drama will only continue
in addition to the threat of hackers, traditional exchanges also have some inherent shortcomings, such as lack of supervision and inefficiency. The security of the exchange for investors can only rely on its own credit, and the cost of running is very low. The stock exchange is regulated at the national level, but there is no such sword of Damocles on the top of the digital currency exchange. Moreover, in an exchange, the same order can only be submitted to one exchange. After the user places an order, the funds used for the transaction will be frozen and can only wait for the completion or cancellation of the transaction. These are undoubtedly inefficient
All in all, the problems of exchanges are the problems of centralization2. Decentralization of exchanges=“ //www.yuanxue365.com/en/img_86d6277f9e2f070889a173c9e224b899a801f257 ">
(1) the progress of the exchange itself
the upgrade of security means is various. At present, the best use is cold wallet, that is, to keep the digital currency in the offline U disk. At the end of 2017, when the YouTube exchange was attacked, 75% of its assets were withdrawn into the cold purse in time to avoid greater losses. However, it seems to be a helpless way to protect the online assets by offline means. Of course, there should be many other methods, which will not be repeated here
(2) the representative of cross ledger transaction is ripple network, and the operating company is ripple labs, which is a semi centralized system. Ripple is a decentralized clearing agreement. In order to solve the high cost and delay of inter-bank clearing, its base currency is XRP. Ripple network can connect all kinds of assets, such as US dollar, RMB, Japanese yen, bitcoin, etc. to its own network. In this system, U.S. dollars or bitcoin can be converted into reborn currency, and then reborn currency can circulate freely in the network, just as a highway is built between various assets. Due to the support of major banking institutions, the reborn currency achieved nearly 300 times growth in 2017
(3) decentralized exchange
some teams try to use blockchain technology to build a decentralized exchange. This kind of decentralized exchange, to some extent, is an extension of cross ledger trading
bitshares is the most representative of early rising projects. It builds a blockchain development platform with servers scattered all over the world. Even if some of them are attacked, the system will not collapse. Anyone can transfer money and borrow money freely on this platform, and can also quickly build a centralized exchange based on this platform. In order to ensure stable value, bitstocks also require three times of digital assets as collateral. At present, bitstocks are running fairly well
later, with the development of Ethereum and smart contract, the x x protocol came into being. This is an open protocol running in the Ethereum blockchain and a decentralized exchange in the Ethereum ecosystem. The agreement has attracted many investors. At present, it has completed financing and started to build open source software tools and infrastructure. Of course, there are many competitors. Ether Delta, IDEX and oasis DEX are trying to provide similar functions. Moreover, it is a smart contract system based on Ethereum, which only supports erc20 token. If other smart contract public chains start to rise, the demand will be reced
in addition, there are some teams that are entering, such as the domestic road seal agreement, looping (LRC) in English. They adopted a design similar to the X protocol, and also introced a fast payment function similar to the lightning network. It is characterized by trying to match multiple exchanges, the user's order can be broadcast to multiple exchanges, and completed by different exchanges. Moreover, the user can still use the account funds after placing an order, and the user's behavior of transferring part or all of the funds is equivalent to partial or total cancellation. To some extent, it improves the breadth and timeliness of the transaction. However, this system seems to have damaged the "power" of the existing exchanges. Whether we can persuade everyone to play together will be a difficult problem
At present, there is still a long way to go for the construction of decentralized exchange. In 3-5 years, traditional exchange will still be the main battlefield of digital currency However, in the future, it is worth looking forward to let the decentralized digital currency get rid of the shackles of centralizationon January 7, 2014, Taobao announced that it would ban the sale of Internet virtual currencies such as bitcoin and lightcoin from January 14. On February 26, 2014, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia issued an open letter to a number of regulatory authorities of the US federal government, hoping that relevant institutions would pay attention to the current situation of bitcoin encouraging illegal activities and disrupting the financial order, and demanded that actions be taken as soon as possible to completely ban the electronic currency. On January 11, 2017), the Shanghai headquarters of the people's Bank of China and the Shanghai Municipal Finance Office carried out on-site inspection of bitcoin China, focusing on whether the enterprise carried out credit, payment, exchange and other related businesses without permission or license; Implementation of anti money laundering system; Fund security risks, etc. On January 12, 2017, the business management department of the people's Bank of China also entered the trading platforms such as "fire coin net" and "currency bank" in Beijing
on May 12, 2017, a global outbreak of bitcoin virus madly attacked public and commercial systems! More than 40 hospitals across the UK have been widely hacked, leaving the NHS in chaos. The campus networks of many colleges and universities in China were also occupied. Nearly 74 countries in the world have been seriously attacked! Thank you
as we all know, the "blackmail virus" is rampant all over the world, and hackers ask the "victims" who are recruited to pay bitcoin. According to the data, the price of bitcoin has skyrocketed by 2.21 million times in the past eight years
for the rise of bitcoin price, the Chinese people must have made their own contribution. After all, bitcoin trading in China once accounted for more than 80% of the global trading volume
However, according to the latest data from the research department of fire coin, Japan accounted for 46.4% of the global bitcoin trading volume last week, followed by the United States, accounting for 26.4%, China ranked third, and the trading volume dropped to 10%. Therefore, if the price of bitcoin exceeds 10000 yuan recently, the contribution of Chinese people should be very small