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Discussion on: How does Cryptocurrency work? Should you really invest in Crypto?

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sushrutkm profile image
Sushrut Mishra

Oh Damn!! Is that so? As far as I've read, cryptography makes it secure and nearly impenetrable. But these links state clearly otherwise.

What do you say Ashwin? Now that we see these metrics, can we really call them secure?
PS. I need to get my facts straight. Sorry for that!

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booleanhunter profile image
Ashwin Hariharan • Edited

Don't worry about it, you and I are in the same bucket when it comes to learning. 🙌

In theory yes, cryptography makes it hard to hack if we're talking about brute-force attacks. But cybersecurity is never that simple is it? Humans are still the weakest link in the chain and prone to social engineering attacks. Much easier for a hacker to convince or trick me into giving him access to my credit card than say, hacking a bank server. 😅

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immazoni profile image
Justin H

Don't let this user misguide you. Core protocols of any top crypto are secure.

What is not secure is people. like any secure system the user is the most vulnerable point. 99.99% of "hacks" are on USERS not the core protocol.

This is like saying the bank is not secure because your card got stolen...

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booleanhunter profile image
Ashwin Hariharan • Edited

Don't let this user misguide you

Not sure how much of a productive conversation can be had with someone who assumes I'm misguiding. Rest assured, my opinions are well-informed after thoughtful consideration, also having listened to what numerous computer scientists (many of them who played a large part in shaping software and indeed the internet as we know it), and economists have to say on the subject.

To the readers: I totally understand why one might think that blockchain based applications are un-hackable, or that they're good for investments. But this narrative is in-fact a very simplistic view for how things actually are - and it for this I was responding to. Cybersecurity is hardly ever that simple, and it is unwise to purely talk in terms of theoreticals.

Contrary to popular belief that gaining control of 51% nodes in the system is extremely hard to accomplish, the latest hack in the Axie Infinity exosystem, constituting $625 million USD, was done due to hackers gaining control of >51% of the validator nodes. It's not like the hackers got access to users actual wallets (so the credit card getting stolen analogy doesn't work here).

So it is prudent to have a well-informed view, especially because there is a world of difference between the theoretical and the implementations in the crypto space.

99.99% of "hacks" are on USERS not the core protocol.

That is correct, but not only within the blockchain ecosystem, but pretty much any ecosystem in general. As I mentioned earlier, even within traditional banking systems (which use RSA & multi-factor authentication btw), it is much easier and practical for a hacker to trick me into giving access to my bank account, than hacking a bank server.

Besides there is nothing inherently special about blockchains that keeps users any less prone to social engineering attacks than the usual databases. Nor does it account for bad data intentionally being injected into the network.

Add to that the total lack of regulations, legal recourse, and the fact that it's extremely difficult to alter data or issue a rollback in-case of a fraud, makes the space extremely unreliable as of today - so one should be extremely wary when considering investments in the space.

So once again, a world of difference between the theoretical and the actual. Please take extreme caution and don't invest more than what you can afford to lose 🙂 . Many people lost huge sums of money because of the ideals touted in favour of web3, while either ignoring or lacking knowledge of the actual implementations.

If you've managed to read until here, I invite you to read this post:

blog.mollywhite.net/blockchains-ar...