The term Bitcoin has been in the headlines of most news outlets around the globe for months now.
Most people have come to grasp the basics regarding Bitcoin at a time when its price has skyrocketed, making it a rare commodity.
In the world of cryptocurrencies, bitcoin is regarded as the godfather of all others in the market. This makes it dictate how other cryptocurrencies behave and work out in terms of market price.
Since its inception, Bitcoin has enjoyed a fair share of great moments and downfalls, mostly disregarded as many saws and thought of it. It was regarded as a pyramid scheme by many as Bitcoin does not have any central regulatory body to control and watch over it.
The fact that Bitcoin has no central authority to regulate its related transaction, this has made Bitcoin free from human-generated error and corruption. The peer-to-peer network used in the transactions has been making Bitcoin transactions safer for users to trust the system in their investments.
These and many other factors around Bitcoin have contributed to the sudden rise of the digital currency in the world market for the last year.
It is alleged that dark web-based markets have significantly affected how Bitcoin has been performing in the market. All darknet markets, including now-closed markets Hansa and AlphaBay, primarily integrate Bitcoin as the mode of payment for the illegal products bought and sold on their platforms.
The end users of these markets are attracted to cryptocurrency because the benefit of anonymity it offers. Bitcoin's mode of operation allows users to make transactions without a paper trail that could lead back to their identity.
In the world of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoins that are passed through the blockchain are alleged to be used not by the intended users; Simply because there is no one to verify that this person owns the Bitcoins or that they're stolen.
The current market price of Bitcoin, which is almost crossing the $17,000 mark and beyond, has made it vulnerable to hackers from all over the world. This is in the bid to compromise the wallets that store the Bitcoins in a hefty sum.
Analysts from different cybersecurity firms across the world have warned that more cyber attacks are likely to be seen directed to Bitcoin mining companies and other Bitcoin-related computer systems.
Hackers are working day and night to devise new ways and methods to compromise the Bitcoin tech firms and wallet companies. It is alleged that millions of dollars' worth of Bitcoins have been stolen by hackers in various ways that the system owners did not understand initially until they were hacked.
A lot of cases have been on the rise where fraudsters have used every technique within their reach to get more Bitcoin funds in their possession.
The ever-increasing number of hacks targeting Bitcoin wallets is greatly attributed to the great promise Bitcoin has to gain in value in the next few years to come.From the general trend, there are high chances that Bitcoin will hit a $100,000 value by the end of 2018 if all factors remain constant.
This has greatly influenced the decision for market investors to take an interest in Bitcoin.
Since most of the people who involve themselves in Bitcoin transactions are not well informed in the ways of computer encryption and cybersecurity, this has given hackers a cutting-edge recently in sending phishing emails to unsuspecting computer users holding Bitcoin funds in their wallets.
Hackers end up gaining access to wallet logins and later steal the Bitcoin funds by siphoning them into their own wallets.
Cases of state-sponsored hackers have been seen on the rise recently, where they end up compromising and stealing a lot of Bitcoin from wallet platforms. Recently North Korea has been accused of hacking into different cryptocurrency platforms and stealing large amounts of Bitcoin to finance their ill-fated nuclear weapons.
NiceHash is the latest Bitcoin mining company to be compromised by hackers in a cyber attack that rendered over $60 million worth of Bitcoins stolen. It was suspected the mining company had stored a lot of bitcoins in one wallet that the hackers got access to.
It was also reported in November that when Bitcoin price hit approximately $10,000, hackers stole over $31 million worth of Bitcoins from another cryptocurrency tech company.
Meanwhile, darknet markets like Dream Market use Bitcoin as their primary form of payment.
Users on these markets buy and sell illegal goods and services using the digital currency-and some of the Bitcoin funds used to trade on the market are sourced from hacked platforms.
Some users allegedly pay using stolen Bitcoins to clean the transaction trail.
This trend is why cybersecurity firms are heavily investing with encrypting and securing Bitcoins wallets in recent times, to try and mitigate the rising cases of cyber attacks happening around the world.
As Bitcoin continues to surge and explore the vast sectors of the market, the risk of being hacked continues to increase largely among various cryptocurrency tech companies. Users are advised to be careful about security when they're making transactions online with Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
At the moment, many remain unknowledgeable on what to do to safeguard their digital payments systems as hackers enhance their tactics of stealing Bitcoins.
Specialists are advising people not to operate on known public networks which are used by hackers to penetrate into their system and steal their credentials.
People are also advised to keep their credentials safe from being known by anybody else. It is also highly advisable that one maintain a secure password and change it regularly to make it difficult for hackers to compromise their wallet accounts.
For now, those who invested in Bitcoins will have to stay aware of hackers and avoid the possibilities of being hacked. Otherwise, these cyber attacks will continue dominating the headlines until a lasting solution will be ventured.
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