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BitGo CEO Mike Belshe Believes in Bitcoin Despite Bitfinex Hack

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:50 PM
Rebecca Campbell
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:50 PM

BitGo’s Mike Belshe has said that questions raised about the security of bitcoin with some suggesting that digital currencies can never be secure are wrong.

After Mt. Gox, the second biggest security breach of a bitcoin exchange took place earlier this month when the Hong Kong-based Bitfinex halted trading after hackers stole around $70 million worth of users’ bitcoins. As a result, questions about the safety of blockchain technology and the future of bitcoin quickly arose.

As the company that is the leading security platform for bitcoin and blockchain technologies that was delegated to deliver security at Bitfinex, Belshe has posted an opinion piece on the BitGo blog focusing on what he thinks needs to be done to improve services, still retaining faith in blockchain. CCN.com recently reported BitGo had declared that its systems were not at fault and functioned correctly during the Bitfinex hack.

According to Belshe, the recent hack at Bitfinex serves as a learning opportunity and the ideal time to learn from past mistakes.

He said:

If we continue to have events like this one, we’ll never gain the user confidence sufficient for us to reach critical mass, and Bitcoin will become a footnote in financial history.

Crypto Currency Certification Consortium (C4)

In Belshe’s opinion, the answer to the problem is to create a set of ‘standard practices to secure Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.’ In order to achieve this, the Crypto Currency Certification Consortium (C4) was established over a year ago with several industry leaders banding together.

The group’s major achievement to date is the work surrounding the Crypto Currency Security Standard (CCSS). Comprising of industry leaders from BitGo in addition to top accounting firms Deloitte and PwC, the project is aimed at providing a detailed list of features to safely store and transact in digital currencies, including the handling of keys and wallets.

CCSS Could Have Prevented Hack

Belshe goes on to state that had the standards from CCSS been implemented they would have prevented the security breach that Bitfinex suffered earlier this month.

He said:

Although the investigation of the Bitfinex hack is not yet complete, I believe that in the final analysis we’ll find the same result, and that CCSS compliance, coupled with standard opsec best practices could have prevented this loss.

He finished by adding that it’s time to get serious about standards and ratify the final version of the CCSS.

We also need folks like PwC and Deloitte, who are already part of the solution, to help with auditing cryptocurrency companies and help prevent future attacks.

Featured image from Shutterstock.