If you don't own the private key, that means you don't own the cryptocurrency. If the private key is stolen, you loose the digital coins. And if you loose the private key, the digital coins under that wallet are lost forever. In principle, your crypto coins are lost for you and for others too, because nobody can ever access it without the private key. There is no provision to recover the lost private keys. This is the characteristic of accessing decentralized asset in the distributed ledgers.
The common advice floating in the air is known to all - "Take care of your private keys". One must save the private key in a secured place, either printed on a paper, saved in a electronic form or stored in a hardware wallet. Each and every storage may fail under certain circumstances.
A lost private key means the user loses all the data and the associated assets, in case of bitcoin the user loses all the digital money! The distributed ledger community couldn't give any sure shot solution for recovering the data, associated digital assets or bitcoin. This is an unfortunate situation that can often happen in real life.
Can we have a solution for the private key-loss conundrum?
Do you think decentralized apps will be accepted by the general mass despite of "Blockchain's private key-loss conundrum"? Do you think that biometrics and digital identity may provide with a solution to this problem? I would love to get your views and suggestions. If you like this article, please click "Like" and "Share" it among your acquaintances and network.
Text Copyright © 2019 Debesh Choudhury— All Rights Reserved
#cryptography #blockchain #cryptocurrency #distributedsystems #identity #biometrics #informationsecurity #infosensys #dazlabsasia #debeshchoudhury
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Didn't realize you were on Steemit. I don't use it much and am switching to Hive after the recent contentious hard fork. Everything from here is there with the same keys/passwords.
Yes, people will use and adopt it. It's better than the bank or some other company being able to arbitrarily suspend your account or inflate your money by printing trillions more out of thin air like the Fed is doing in the USA now. And since the Indian Supreme Court threw out the ban on crypto, it will be coming fast when fiat money won't buy anything any more. And then there are all the fees collected by middlemen in the fiat system which are largely or completely eliminated by cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, in particular, is inherently deflationary. It goes up in value over time - encouraging savings and allowing one to adopt a low time preference where future benefits can be planned and created because the value isn't evaporating out of your hands.
Central authority is based on trust (and coercion) and that trust has been massively broken. People just have to realize it when the hard consequences occur.
Most people don't like to assume more self responsibility when they can get someone else to take care of things for them - especially when they are afraid. But when the costs of doing that get too high, that changes everything.
BTW, there are things like multisig wallets which which can survive the loss of one or more keys. One key isn't the only way to do things. Done right, they actually add security, because if one key is compromised, it still doesn't grant access to the underlying assets. E.G. you might need 3 of 5 keys to grant access. (This isn't usually used for small assets because of the extra complexity, but it proves there are alternative solutions to compromised/lost keys.)
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Thanks for the detailed comment. I will check Hive.
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