The complexity of cryptocurrencies creates
an extra hurdle that impedes efforts to increase usage of the technology by
ordinary users. So while crypto enthusiasts like to tout the transparency or
the immutability Bitcoin for instance; its more difficult to convince
non-enthusiasts to buy into this when they have to deal with complex terms or
processes associated with cryptocurrencies.
Hacking
threat
To begin with, non-enthusiasts have to
contend with intermediaries like crypto exchanges to help them get off the mark
yet these are known to be susceptible to hacking attacks.
To illustrate, according to a UK financial
services watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consultation
paper, in the first half of 2018 alone, $731 million worth of cryptos were
stolen from exchanges. This included $500 million from a hack on the Coincheck
exchange and $40 million from a hack on the Coinrail exchange. By October 2018,
hacking of exchanges increased to $927 million. The problem is quite
significant relative to the size of this fledging market.
So while it might be appealing to store life
savings in Bitcoin form âwhich is inflation proof and censorship resistantâthis
may not be a practical option at all if the risk of losing everything is very
high.
Of course, this risk can be eliminated if a
new cryptocurrency user decides to use a more secure crypto wallet as opposed
to exchange
based wallets. However, that also means they will have to take some time to
learn some of the basics about private
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://africablockchainmedia.com/news/fio-proposal-simplifies-cryptos-and-potentially-hastens-adoption/2019/12/06/