Crypto Commentary: Both Sides of the Coin

By: James Quaid

Today, I’m going to post the most concise Yin / Yang of Cryptos that I can offer at this time. I would also like to thank Jon McAfee for his validation of most of my previous Crypto risk assessments; as well as his expert and detailed analysis..

John McAfee: “Pandora’s Box has Been Opened” (Crypto currency security)

YouTube | 23 August 2017
“There is no Security”…

The Yin:

The Solari Team had a detailed discussion on the above video. We dissected it into ten main points with some related sub points:

Spy ware key loggers and screen capture infections are rampant.
These infections operate behind the Maginot Line of encryption..
Cryptos have been a God send to hackers. Note, the ever expanding arena of Crypto thefts.
The Mirai spyware bots have been rewritten to mine Cryptos on the IOT, using other peoples devices / kW..
- The infection rate is ~ 50k devices a day..
- Not illegal at this time.
- The shear number of infected devices could alter Crypto markets.
Crypto thieves launder ill gotten gains by converting them to other Crypto currencies, multiple times. Yielding an untraceable transaction trail.
McAfee predicts the day when everyones’ Crypto Wallets are emptied en mass.
McAfee recommends dedicated hardware wallets and advanced dedicated packet sniffers to detect all intrusions ASAP.
“There is no security whatsoever.” Hence, proof digital devices have no integrity.
He omitted the Snowden revelation of Government specified hardware and software back doors.
And finally, one of our Solari Team Members who in a past life, had worked for some large MIC corporations asserted that Hardware Wallets have vulnerabilities too..

Implications:

The most chilling of the above points #3, implies that Hacking has seen at a minimum an order of magnitude increase in ill-gotten gains. Where not only are their thefts much more profitable. But, they can now mine Cryptos on other peoples machines. This puts the legitimate Mining Community at a distinct disadvantage. Hackers can now off load their mining costs to someone else. Also note, the alarming infection rate of 50k devices a day. Eventually, that will become an amazing amount of free computing power. Now these questions must be asked:

How large has the Hacker Community grown due to Crypto thefts?
Will the stealth mining of Cryptos via the Mirai Bot infection sway Crypto and or other markets?

Also note, that if you have put anything of value on your “Smart” phone, especially Cryptos. I desperately suggest you goto 04:13 of the above video and get some religion about mobile phone security..

Omissions:

We know from the Snowden revelations. That our beloved FedGov.Inc (note domain suffix) has their own set of Cyber hardware and software “back doors”. My educated guess is that the Dark Side Snowdens know where these back doors are and are pillaging unchecked.

See point #10 in the above list. During our Solari Team Crypto discussion, our resident EE Hardware/Software expert made the supposition that cell towers can pick up keystrokes, perform screen captures and or pick up signals emanating from your digital device’s main system board. I’m repeating myself. But, my suspicions are your cell phone has these same capabilities.

All that being said, John McAfee is still mining Cryptos!! Therefore, there are risk and rewards to be had..

The Yang:

If you have the aptitude, understand the risks and the resources to spare then Cryptos hold the potential for speculative gains. However, you must follow the rules that apply to any highly speculative investment and not put money at risk that you can not afford to lose. You also must fully immerse yourself into the subject matter. For a good foundation, see links below. These were all chosen by Catherine during her ongoing Crypto investigation:

Conclusion:

All of that being said, the most successful Crypto Miner I know, has planned his exit strategy. Before, government regulation takes the profit out of mining Cryptos.