The Massive Bitcoin Boom, and the Uprising of Cryptocurrencies

CoinMarketCap has shown how the value of digital currencies has surged from less than $18 billion to nearly $180 billion this year. It doesn’t take an expert to notice how the market has ballooned since Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention of Bitcoin.

What you might not know is that Satoshi didn’t initially invent Bitcoin solely as a currency. In late 2008, he announced that he had developed “an electronic cash system for peer-to-peer network”.

Digital currency can’t be touched or held. It’s not a precious metal like gold or platinum. It doesn’t look as dazzling as a diamond. Yet, a single Bitcoin is worth several thousand dollars – more than the average American has in their bank account.  

In fact, from October 2016 to October 2017, price of Bitcoin increased by a whopping 720.6%. Meanwhile, the price of crude oil increased by only 16.4%, and the price of gold increased by a measly 0.09%.

You don’t need to be an expert to work out which seems like the better investment option right now.

How Does Bitcoin Work?

Bitcoin is an entry on a huge global ledger called the blockchain. It’s a fully digital currency that uses peer-to-peer technology, meaning it can operate with no banks or central authority figure.

The Importance of a Secure Digital Identity for the Internet 3.0

With the huge spike in cryptocurrency investment we’re currently experiencing, the digital identity security risk is higher than ever.  Because there is no organization handling the systems behind Bitcoin, it is vital that you follow the right precautions to keep yourself secure online while dealing.

Your Digital Identity is a permanent collection of data about you that is available online. This includes your email, your bank account, and all of your social media accounts. Think about how many messages you’ve posted on Facebook since you created your account. This is your digital footprint – and it’s growing larger every day.

Whenever you enter your financial details, address, and telephone number for shopping, trading or any other purpose, it is saved on a server. Even buying digital currencies poses a hazard. If something goes wrong or the website is hacked, all your information is instantly accessible to third-parties.

In today’s world, securing your digital identity is no longer a choice. It’s a necessity.

How to Secure Your Identity

You might think that you have nothing to hide. While that might be true, the fact is you have everything to protect.

As a user of the Internet, you should be concerned about your online identity. For example, when you trade Bitcoins, you are working under blockchain, which records every single transaction you make. The complete ledger is estimated to be around 138 GB of data.

The Blockchain is decentralized, meaning anyone can volunteer to keep the ledger up-to-date. The system works entirely on a cryptographic hash function, which is an algorithm that takes an input of any size and turns into an output of a fixed size.

The system is called Secure Hash Function 256 (SHA-256). It was originally developed by the National Security Agency in the United States. Unlike most money, Bitcoin is not attached to a state or government, so it doesn’t have a central issue authority or regulatory body.

As a result, there is no organization deciding when to make more Bitcoins, figuring out how many to produce, keeping track of where they are being transferred to and from, or investigating frauds. If you lose your Bitcoin wallet, the coins within it are gone forever.

Self-sovereign identity is the concept that people and businesses can store their own identity data on their own devices. Ultimately, it puts you in control of your own identity and allows you to instantly and securely access global financial services.

One company hoping to make this concept mainstream is the blockchain-based, end-to-end digital identity system, SelfKey.

Protect your identity with SelfKey

SelfKey gives you full control of your identity and puts all of your online security back into your own hands. You can protect your own personal data and instantly apply for passports, residency, and financial services in a safe and secure manner like never before.

For example, if you are dealing with Bitcoin or any other online currency, you will be able to use SelfKey Identity Wallet. This is a secure feature that allows you to manage your own personal identity document without the involvement of any third-party database. It is saved solely on your device. Who you choose to share it with is down to you.

SelfKey isn’t just used to exchange online currencies. The Identity Wallet can be paired with a cryptographic key and used for a wide range of other purposes, such as signing documents digitally or even verifying your identity using personal documents.

The SelfKey Network protects your identity from the big data ocean, the government, malicious third-parties who want to steal and use your data.

To see the full range of SelfKey’s services, take a look at their marketplace.

The Future of Crypto and Blockchain Technology for Online Identity Security

A brand new revolution is upon us. Everything is changing about how we interact and trade.

Blockchain and the technologies emerging from it are undoubtedly doing their job of lowering the risks and uncertainties involved with online trading. However, they’re also radically changing our economic system in the process. In the past decade since the creation of Bitcoin, things have changed more than we ever could have imagined.

We are entering a world where distributed technology is having a bigger role in economic development than we ever thought possible. The inevitable uprising of Self-Sovereign Identity is just around the corner.