Mobius Capital Partners LLP founder and emerging markets fund manager Joseph Bernhard Mark Mobius has raised concerns over the security promised by blockchain technology — first made famous by Bitcoin (BTC) — while calling it “a very high-risk situation.”
Mark Mobius: Blockchain Could Create ‘Big Crisis’
At the time of this writing, the Bitcoin network — the most famous and robust blockchain network — has been operational for 99.98 percent of its lifetime, which began Jan 3, 2009, 02:54:25 GMT.
Nevertheless, Mark Mobius believes “blockchain” can be infiltrated. The financial professional told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” earlier today:
“A lot of people say, ‘blockchain can’t be broken into.’ No, it can be. Anything that’s created by man can be broken into. And it could create a big crisis.”
However, Mobius does not explicitly state which blockchain he is specifically referring to. While there are dozens of individual blockchains — such as those provided by Ethereum (ETH), NEO (NEO), EOS (EOS), Waves (WAVES), Stellar (XLM), etc. — the first and foremost, Bitcoin’s, is widely considered to be impenetrable.
That said, Mobius’ concerns may be valid.
Mobius Might Be Right – About Altcoins, Not Bitcoin
While the Bitcoin network has been operational for nearly 100 percent of its existence, the same robust security cannot be boasted by altcoin blockchains.
Ethereum Classic (ETC) fell victim to a 51-percent attack (also known as a “double-spend attack”) in January of this year. Other smaller-cap altcoins, including Verge (XVG) and Bitcoin Gold (BTG), have also fallen victim to successful attacks on their underlying blockchains.
Even more robust networks like Ethereum’s can allegedly be attacked for $113,032 per hour.
Even Bitcoin may not be impenetrable forever. There does exist a fear among many industry professionals that quantum computing will one day be able to successfully break the Bitcoin blockchain with its immense computational power and encryption-breaking capabilities.
Legendary Investor Bashes ‘Psycho-Currency’ Bitcoin, Then Accidentally Makes Crypto Case https://t.co/X50aO1eIb1
— CCN Markets (@CCNMarkets) August 20, 2019
While this fear is a legitimate one, there currently does not exist a quantum computer capable of completing such a task — so Bitcoin hodlers probably don’t need to lose any sleep over Mobius’ statements.