Last week a massive security breach at credit reporting company Equifax exposed sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers and addresses, of up to 143 million Americans. This has undoubtedly exposed their customers to the threat of identity theft.
Consumer information will be sold online where criminals will attempt to access accounts or open credit cards, exploiting the information of their victims.
Unfortunately, these security breaches are becoming increasingly common. In fact, over the last few years there have been several high-profile breaches including, Target, Yahoo, Sony and even some offices of the U.S. government.
Centralized Stored Information
More and more of our financial information is being stored online, with us relying on third parties to protect our data or assets. It is becoming increasingly clear that handing over our data to be stored in the centralized systems of these organizations can leave us vulnerable.
You may be wondering, what choice do I have? In order to participate in the new digital economy, we have to rely on online businesses and services. Over time, even more commerce and logistics will be carried out online.
Even now, advancements in cryptocurrency like Bitcoin are paving the way for further digitizing of assets. Bitcoin has resisted all cyber-attacks for more than eight years; however, attackers continue to exploit vulnerabilities in third party exchanges and services. Earlier this year Bitcoin exchange BTC-e was temporarily shut down after the arrest of one of the administrators of the site, Alexander Vinnik.
The exchange had their domain seized by the government and customers were left unsure if they would be able to access their funds. Consumers are sick of relying on others for their security, especially when they are consistently let down, but is there a better way?
BitShares has already solved the problem of securing online funds and transactions by using a decentralized blockchain based system. However, centralized exchanges and services remain open to exploitation.
Decentralized Information
The next step forward in information security is to apply this decentralization to not just digital assets but to the online services on which we rely. By leveraging distributed ledger technology, we can mitigate the risk of single point failure. One platform has already begun the process by building a decentralized asset exchange.
BitShares is an up and coming cryptocurrency and blockchain with the power to drastically change how the world does business. The BitShares Decentralized Exchange (DEX) offers a high-performance exchange capable of handling the trade volume of the NASDAQ, while offering the benefits of a decentralized system.
Decentralization gives BitShares robustness against failure. When a centralized exchange is compromised, millions of dollars and thousands of users are impacted all at once. In a decentralized system, any attack or failure impacts only a single user and their funds.
Unlike a centralized exchange like BTC-e, the DEX gives users control over their private keys, meaning they have complete control over their assets. Even more impressive is that users do not have to sacrifice features for security. The BitShares platform is not only fast, efficient and secure, but it allows for the creation of price-stable cryptocurrencies as well as custom user issued assets.
Blockchain can not only be used to decentralize exchanges, it also allows for the decentralization of information, records and even companies. The BitShares platform allows for the creation of Distributed Autonomous Companies (DAC).
Distributed Autonomous Companies run using an incorruptible set of business rules, eliminating the need for human involvement. This streamlines the business model making operations fast, efficient and much more profitable. This method also removes governance from a central corruptible authority to all stakeholders, through something called consensus.
Removing the need for executives and democratizing governance provides a much safer path for business in the future. CEOs which have the potential to abuse their power or carry out fraudulent activity are completely removed from the equation.
Slowly, platforms such as BitShares are removing the middlemen and gatekeepers that control our personal information and assets. There are literally hundreds of new blockchain based projects trying to create secure and trustworthy alternatives for users. Every industry will be challenged by blockchain and forced to adapt to a new decentralized approach to business, and that is good news for consumers. The same technology that allowed BitShares to revolutionize money may help us prevent mass data theft in the future. For too long we have read headlines about large “hacks” and data breaches, it is time for a new approach.
“BitShares does for business what bitcoin did for money by utilizing distributed consensus technology to create companies that are inherently global, transparent, trustworthy, efficient and most importantly profitable.”
If you want to learn more about the BitShares platform and the powerful services it offers, visit bitshares.org and join our Billion Hero Campaign at billionherocampaign.com
