Over 14 years has passed since the introduction of Bitcoin, the first and best-known cryptocurrency. Although Bitcoin exchanges, wallets, and other third-party services that store the digital assets have all been compromised, the Bitcoin network as a whole has never been attacked. The blockchain technology, which is a distributed, decentralised ledger that keeps track of all transactions, is the foundation of the Bitcoin network. A network of users known as miners, who utilise specialised computer gear to solve challenging mathematical puzzles, maintains the network’s security. In order to ensure the network’s integrity, these puzzles are made to be challenging to solve yet simple to verify. Due to its decentralised structure, one of the most important features of blockchain technology is that it is extremely hard to hack. It would be extremely difficult and prohibitively costly for a hacker to control more than 50% of the network’s computer power, which is required to compromise the Bitcoin network. The Bitcoin network is therefore regarded as being highly secure and has never been compromised. Although the network itself is protected against hackers, the digital assets that are kept inside are not. It has happened more than once during Bitcoin’s existence for third-party services like exchanges and wallets to be hacked. The Mt. Gox attack in 2014, which resulted in the theft of 850,000 Bitcoins, and the Bitfinex incident in 2016, which resulted in the theft of 120,000 Bitcoins, are two of the most well-known instances of these thefts.
Read more : Unhackable? Examining the Security of the Bitcoin Network and its Vulnerabilities.
