The Cryptomise Sunday

Author: Mansi Patodi

28-Oct-2022

The Truth about Bitcoin Hacking

Feds Seized $311M in Bitcoin (BTC). The Crypto Hacker Stole…
Crypto Hackers Gross Over $3 Billion From 125 Hacks so Far This Year.
Crypto Worth Over $320 Million Taken in Wormhole Hack.

All these news and headlines have become a daily dose of fear for many cryptocurrency investors. But, if we focus on the more profound aspect, there has always been news of hot wallet hacking, including cryptocurrencies kept online, and there are no tracks of Bitcoin Blockchain being hacked ever in history.

If not till now! Then, Can Bitcoin ever get hacked or shut down?
Probably not. The entire Bitcoin network solves complex math problems and creates blocks that store users' transaction information. This information is stored in the form of a hash. Every succeeding transaction contains the new hash and the hash of the previous transaction.
Secondly, Due to the distributed ledger property of Bitcoin Blockchain, multiple copies of transactions are available in the network. And it is impossible to modify the hashes of trillions of transactions and their copies. The hacker who wants to hack the blockchain will have to alter 51% of the network's nodes, also known as a 51% attack.

What is 51% attack?

51% attack is a theoretical fact that if any organization or individual succeeds in taking control over 51% of the blockchain network, he would be able to make changes as a majority which is 51%, they can interrupt the minting of new blocks through the dominance in the blockchain. Although from the time of Bitcoin's existence, neither of the attackers has been able to achieve it.

How do Bitcoins get stolen?

The individuals or websites taking no notice of the correct security measures end up compromising their private keys and wallet password. Stolen Bitcoins result from being kept in unsafe places like obscure Hot wallets or say online wallets.