Why Is Bitcoin Safe? What, And More [2024]

What Is Bitcoin?

Why Is Bitcoin Safe? Bitcoin is a digital currency in 2009. Bitcoin relies on a peer-to-peer network called the blockchain to record transactions rather than an official regulator as a decentralized cryptocurrency. There are no physical bitcoins, and their worth can vary widely depending on the market.

When it was released, a bitcoin was essentially worthless. Laszlo Hanyecz made the first accurate purchase of physical goods with bitcoin in May 2010 when he bought two pizzas for around 10,000 bitcoins (BTC). At the highest price recorded by Bitcoin – nearly $65,000 apiece – these pizzas would have been priced at around $650 million.

Bitcoin has inspired a change of other cryptocurrencies with Ethereum, Cardano, Dogecoin and thousands more. While it may not seem very secure, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is surprisingly robust. Anyone with the technical knowledge can make their cryptocurrency.

Why Is Bitcoin Safe?

Bitcoin technology is secure primarily because of the blockchain’s base on a specific technology. Bitcoin is also crypto, public, decentralized and permissionless. As an investment, Bitcoin may not be safe due to market volatility. The top four reasons why bitcoin technology is (mostly) secure:

Bitcoin Uses Secure Cryptography

How is Bitcoin safe? Bitcoin support a unique system called the blockchain. Blockchain is an enhanced technology based on certain fundamentals and cryptography compared to other financial solutions.

Blockchain uses volunteers, many of them, to sign hashes that use cryptography to validate transactions on the Bitcoin network. This system ensures transactions are generally irreversible, and bitcoin data security is vital.

Bitcoin Is Public

While it doesn’t seem safer to be public, the transparency of the bitcoin ledger means that all transactions are publicly available, even if the people involved are anonymous. Therefore, it is tough to cheat or cheat the system.

Since all data is publicly available, there is nothing for attackers to “hack” and see: all transactions are public for everyone.

Compare that to the data breaches common to traditional businesses, and Bitcoin looks a lot more secure. When you purchase or sell bitcoin, you don’t add any individual information like your passwords, credit card numbers, or physical address to the blockchain so nothing can leak out.

It is very different from when hackers break into traditional financial systems; ask Equifax folks.

Decentralization Of Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin distributed network has more than ten thousand nodes worldwide that track all transactions in the system. This number of nodes certifies that others can take over if something happens to one of the servers or nodes.

It also means that trying to hack any of the servers is pointless. There is nothing you can steal that other nodes and servers can’t prevent unless you control 51% of the nodes; It’s not impossible, but very unlikely.

Bitcoin Does Not Require Permissions

Being public and decentralized means very little when you need to be authorized by an authority. Without a regulator, Bitcoin is open to everyone. The lack of permissions keeps bitcoin honest and fair for everyone.

Bitcoin’s decentralized crypto technology makes it primarily secure. Decentralized cryptographic technology support Bitcoin security.

What Is Blockchain Exactly?

The blockchain is a distributed ledger that uses hash functions to provide, record, and authenticate a unique digital fingerprint of each transaction. When each transaction is hired and verified as special, it is sent to a “block” of other transitions and becomes unmodifiable. These blocks together make up the blockchain.

How secure is the blockchain? It is protecting by 256-bit SHA hash functions, the same level of security used by banks, the military, and virtual private networks (VPNs) to encrypt their systems. But unlike encryption, which can crack, SHA hash functions provide a unique fingerprint for each transaction that cannot reconstruct.

Cryptography In Blockchains

Cryptography in blockchains is to sign data with a unique, unbreakable identifier that can verify by other system participants using the same cryptographic algorithm.

Blockchain also creates security through consensus. However, your cryptocurrency wallet is not necessarily secure, and that is where you keep your bitcoins. To be hacked, someone would need to take over 51% of Bitcoin’s mining capacity, which would be incredibly unlikely.

Bitcoin Security Issues

Although Bitcoin technology is pretty secure, there are some risks that you should consider before investing. Bitcoin is not anonymous, the price of crypto can be highly volatile, Bitcoin is password-based, and cryptocurrency wallets are not immune to theft.

Bitcoin Is Not Anonymous

Governments can subpoena information, and cybercriminals use all kinds of illegal means to get information. Although bitcoin hides your personal information, it does not conceal your crypto wallet address. It means that you are not “anonymous” but “pseudonymous”, and someone could use clues to find your personal information.

Find Your Transaction

Since all ledgers are public, someone who knew how much you spent, when and where you spent it could find your transaction in the catalogue and trace it back to your wallet. Once they do that, they could record your spending habits, collect data about your life, and maybe even blackmail you.

But with today’s amount of web tracking, it’s far more probable that advertisers or data brokers are spying on your private business through your web browsing.

Bitcoin Is Volatile

Although bitcoin uses secure cryptography, it could say that it is not a safe investment due to its volatility. Without a regulator and a 24/7 international market, a $60,000 bitcoin one day can be worth $30,000 a few days later.

Although there have been times of stability, they never last long. Invest at your own risk and know that you could incur significant losses. After all, there’s a reason people joke about bitcoin being only astrology for men.

Bitcoin Passwords Can Be Lost

Stored Bitcoins in crypto wallets. If you forget your Bitcoin password, i.e. your wallet password, you will get in trouble. Some people have lost millions of dollars after not remembering their crypto wallet password. There is no primary residence you can go to improve your account.

It is another motive why you should always use a password manager. But even your precautions may not be enough. A famous cryptocurrency exchange has failed to refund customers $190 million after the death of its founder without revealing the only password.