As we see Bitcoin rising faster than ever and with the recent hacks, one has to wonder if the current storage methods we use are secure enough as Bitcoin becomes more and more valuable.

As Bitcoin becomes more and more valuable, the amount of time and effort hackers put into stealing it will only increase. Think about it this way, if a hacker can identify someone with even 1 Bitcoin and it is worth $100K at that time, they could spend a full year trying to hack that person and their effort comes out to making a $100K a year salary, which is a pretty good salary even in a first world country, and it’s a fortune in a third world country if the hacker happens to live there. So as you can see, it becomes very profitable to hack Bitcoin as a full time job even if you are only successful once a year! If the Bitcoin price goes even higher as those like John Mcafee have predicted, it almost makes it a worthwhile lifetime pursuit to try to hack and steal even one Bitcoin, especially for those in countries with less opportunity than some of us are accustomed to.

Then of course is the fact that hacking and stealing Bitcoin is virtually risk free for the one doing it. The chances of being caught are almost zero and the money can be swapped and tumbled into different currencies and come out clean as can be. Imagine if there was no risk in getting caught robbing a bank? Bank robberies would be a non-stop occurrence until something was done about it.







So in the end you are left with a highly valuable commodity that is pretty much risk free to try to steal. It’s a really bad combination when talking about security and one that will need to be addressed sooner than later. The one thing saving us is the amount of technical knowledge needed to hack or steal Bitcoins. But as I said before, as Bitcoins become more valuable to steal, more and more people will find a way to teach themselves the knowledge needed. Not to mention, when the reward is high enough, even honest people with the skills will be tempted to start hacking and stealing Bitcoins.

An even scarier thought is that if Bitcoins become valuable enough, it may start to attract regular strong arm style robberies. People who are known Bitcoin holders being held at gunpoint until they reveal their private keys. The transfer can all be done in a few minutes. This is a more extreme example, but one that is possible when millions of dollars can be stolen within minutes and by simply entering a private key into a laptop. It is entirely possible that we enter a time when people almost never talk about holding Bitcoins for fear of attack.

Hopefully the marketplace will find a fix for all of this. New hardware wallets that never need a computer or other technologies could help secure Bitcoins and every crytpo as they become more an more valuable. But with Bitcoin prices rising faster than anyone predicted, the market may not be able to react fast enough, and we may go through a time where the biggest threat to your portfolio won’t be bears or fud, it will be hackers.