Crypto currencies or cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others are currently being prima donna. Why not, the value of Bitcoin a few days ago had broken the USD 52,000 or around IDR 732 million per coin.
But cryptocurrencies are full of controversy because they are not controlled or regulated by many countries. As a result, the value is often unstable and cannot be used as a legal payment method.
Bitcoin Price :
1. The mysterious inventor of Bitcoin
Since it was first launched in 2009, the creator of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has been shrouded in mystery. Nobody knows the real identity of the person who developed and wrote the white paper on Bitcoin.
In 2014, Newsweek magazine revealed the identity of this person, namely Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, a Japanese-American man living in California, United States. But not long after that, Nakamoto denied this.
The name Satoshi Nakamoto, who was referred to as the author of the Bitcoin paper, was allegedly a pseudonym. Many people confessed, or even claimed to be Nakamoto, but nothing had been proven.
Apart from Nakamoto, there are several other names that are suspected of being the creators of Bitcoin. Like Hal Finney, a cryptography pioneer who was the first to accept Bitcoin transactions.
Big Gold creator Nicj Szabo and Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen are two other names related to the name Satoshi Nakamoto.
But by mid-2020, billionaire and cybersecurity pioneer John McAfee said he was 99% sure he knew the identity behind Satoshi Nakamoto's name.
Even so, McAfee said he would not reveal the identity of the person who wrote the Bitcoin paper. He was worried that this would destroy his life and possibly make him die.
"I've spoken to him on the phone, I'm actually going to reveal who he is," said McAfee in an interview with cryptocurrency site Cointelegraph, as quoted by Forbes.
2. Hacker threat
The increasing popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has also attracted the attention of hackers and thieves to commit acts of fraud and theft. Even though crypto currencies rely on blockchain which is often predicted as a system that cannot be hacked.
Most of the hackers don't target Bitcoin or Ethereum directly for hacking, but rather crypto currency exchange companies. Data from Finaria.it found that in 2020 crypto criminals stole an estimated USD 1.9 billion in cryptocurrency.
Most of the crypto crimes in the past year involved fraud, followed by theft and ransomware.
But the most shocking thing is that a US court recently charged three hackers who are also members of the North Korean military intelligence agency on charges of stealing crypto and traditional currencies totaling USD 1.3 billion or around Rp.18 trillion.
The victims of the hackers' hack were various, from companies, banks, to film studios in Hollywood, as said by the US Ministry of Justice. The three hackers are Jon Chang Hyok (31 years), Kim Il (27 years old, and Park Jin Hyok (36 years).
The trio created rogue cryptocurrency applications, opened backdoors on victims' computers, broke into companies that market and trade in digital currencies such as Bitcoin, and developed blockchain platforms to evade sanctions and raise funds secretly.
They are also suspected of breaking into and stealing from cryptocurrency exchange companies in Slovenia and Indonesia, and extorting cryptocurrency exchange companies in New York up to USD 11.8 million.
3. Bubble threat
Cryptocurrencies have continued to break record highs in recent days. Bitcoin as the largest crypto currency in the world has ever reached the point of USD 52,000 per coin, and Ethereum which is in second place recorded a figure of USD 1,918 or around IDR 26 million per coin.
The recent rise in Bitcoin numbers is influenced by several factors. More and more institutional and retail investors are joining in, and large corporations are also tapping into cryptocurrencies.
Call it Tesla, the company owned by Elon Musk, which bought around USD 1.5 billion Bitcoin. Musk is known as one of the most outspoken supporters of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin value is even predicted to continue to craze until the end of this decade. Anthony Pompliano, co-founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital Assets, said Bitcoin could hit the USD 500,000 mark by the end of the decade.
After that, Bitcoin is predicted to reach USD 1 million per coin, but Pompliano did not provide an estimate of the time.
"I think Bitcoin will slowly rise to become a global reserve currency. I think Bitcoin will eventually be much bigger than the gold market cap," Pompliano said in an interview with CNBC.
But because it is decentralized, aka not controlled by a central bank, the value of Bitcoin is very volatile and fluctuates easily. JPMorgan Global Market Strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said Bitcoin is five times more volatile than gold. It is feared that there will be a Bitcoin bubble, after which it will burst and the price plummets.
"The biggest risk is the flow impulse that we've seen over the last few months slowing down materially from here," Panigirtzoglou told CNBC.
"Especially when the economy reopens, people come back to the office, they have less time to buy and sell at home, and as a result, retail, impulse flow slows down from here," he concluded.
