Future Cyber ​​World War: Bitcoin Blockchain Defense Is More Reliable Than Central Institutions

Cybersecurity has become one of the biggest security threats to many countries, including the United States, the European Union, Russia, and China. An effective large-scale attack could simultaneously disrupt communications, ground military aircraft, or attack civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, power plants, and communications in major cities.

Adeolu Fadele, president and founder of the Crypto Development Initiative of Nigeria (CDIN), said:

"It is now widely believed that the next war will be fought online. Because in the digital age, states are still the main body of world power, and these states must have superior cyber defense and offensive capabilities."

Perimeter security is unreliable

The existing network security system is full of loopholes. In October 2016, a large-scale distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack hit some well-known websites, such as Twitter, Amazon, and the New York Times, making them inaccessible. This attack did not directly target any of these companies, but targeted Dyn, the DNS service provider for these companies.

Fadele told Cointelegraph that the inherent vulnerabilities in current systems are the main reason why perimeter defense has become standard practice. Now that traditional perimeter defenses are no longer able to protect against advanced persistent threats (APTs), the need for an attack-resistant distributed ledger technology (such as the Bitcoin blockchain) has become inevitable.

Better chance of survival

Grant Blaisdell from Coinfirm Blockchain Labs believes that blockchain technology can significantly reduce potential losses, because if an attacker wants to successfully attack a blockchain network, they must attack the entire network instead of just one central point. In addition, even if attacked, most infrastructure has a high chance of not being affected.

“IT ‘perimeter security’ is not the best strategy because it puts the target in a vulnerable position where they are isolated from the attack. Blockchain distributed networks can provide better communication and protection from threats.

Governments fear losing control

Considering why governments might be reluctant to embrace blockchain technology, Blaisdell said it could be due to an irrational fear of losing control.

For decades (or even centuries), all governments and public administrations have centralized policy for decision-making and critical infrastructure, a model that is proving to be inefficient and insecure, with thousands of incidents such as email leaks or data theft. A unified blockchain-based system for administration, security, and even the military would significantly reduce the risk of attacks and potential damage.

The reliability of Bitcoin

Fadele cited the Bitcoin blockchain as an example of a distributed ledger system that has been running on a public network for eight years without traditional perimeter security. “Bitcoin is now worth more than $14 billion, and no one has been able to hack into it.”

He also pointed out some properties of the Bitcoin blockchain that make it a better security defense than traditional perimeter defenses:

1. Public, decentralized and distributed transaction records

2. Tamper-proof and unchangeable transaction records

3. Real-time audit results

4. Anti-attack

5. Censorship resistance

However, Fadele believes that some current challenges may be slowing down the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin and blockchain:

New and evolving

1. Technical complexity

2. Uncertainty surrounding Bitcoin regulation

3. Criminal misuse of Bitcoin, such as malware

4. Scalability limitations

5. KYC/AML barriers

The second digital revolution

The digital revolution that began decades ago is still disrupting existing systems and structures. The first generation of digital revolution represented by Internet information has disrupted many institutions, such as printing presses, post offices, libraries and communications. Now the next round of digital revolution has arrived, bringing us the Internet of value, which will change the global financial and economic landscape.