In February 2014, the exchange revealed that a hacker had stolen approximately 850,000 BTC (~$473 million) from the platform. At that time, Mt. Gox was the exchange leader, processing nearly 70 percent of all bitcoin transactions.

Many exchange platforms are innately centralized, so they make the decentralized benefits of blockchains obsolete.Īny early crypto adopter can tell you about the 2014 Mt. Gox hack. Cryptocurrency exchanges have become lucrative honeypots for hackers due to their massive crypto holdings and sometimes poor security practices. One of the most costly blockchain security issues isn’t a problem with blockchain technology itself. Being vigilant of mining pools, implementing merged mining on a blockchain with a higher hashrate, or switching to a different consensus mechanism are all viable options. If your blockchain utilizes a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, you need to have security measures in place to prevent a 51% attack. Overall, attackers walked away with over $20 million last year due to this blockchain security issue. In 2018, several notable cryptocurrencies such as ZenCash, Verge, and Ethereum Classic fell victim to 51% attacks. With the majority hashrate, they can reverse transactions to perform double-spends and prevent other miners from confirming blocks. In a 51% attack, one, or several, malicious entities gain majority control of a blockchain’s hashrate. In due part to HBO’s Silicon Valley, 51% attacks are one of the most recognized blockchain security issues. Here are the top five blockchain security issues to look out for in 2019. In fact, blockchains have exposure to their own specific set of security issues that, if not accounted for, can be detrimental to your business. However, these fundamental safety features don’t mean that blockchain security issues are non-existent. Additionally, cryptographic proofs and game theory consensus mechanisms make a blockchain near impossible to hack.

By distributing data, or a ledger in most cases, across several computers, blockchains remove any single point of failure. Top Five Blockchain Security Issues in 2019īlockchain technology is inherently secure.

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