MYTH #1: BITCOIN WAS HACKED | Robbery Or Jailbreak?
Yes, you read it right!
In the entire history of Bitcoin since the day it came into existence, there has never been any sort of attack occurred on the Blockchain that resulted in stolen bitcoin from an output that is already confirmed.Also, there has never been a reported theft resulting directly from a susceptibility in the native Bitcoin client, or vulnerability in the bitcoin protocol. Bitcoin is highly secured by standardized cryptographic functions. These functions have been considered unlikely to be fragile in the foreseeable future and deeply reviewed by experts of cryptography.
It can be said that the currency itself has never been ‘hacked’. However, several major web-based platforms using this currency have been hacked, majorly resulting in Bitcoin heists of high profile. In some media these heists are incorrectly reported as hacks on Bitcoin itself.
For instance: Just because someone stole Indian Rupees from a grocery store doesn’t mean that the Indian Rupees as a currency has been ‘hacked’.
In response to occurrence of consistent wave of thefts in the year 2011 and 2012, development of risk-mitigating measures such as support for multiple signatures, encryption for wallet, offline wallets, paper wallets, and most importantly hardware wallets. These measures gain adoption by both users and merchants resulting in dropping number of thefts.
