Social media platform Twitter was hacked earlier today and many prominent and verified accounts appeared to offering Bitcoin giveaways.
And it didn’t take long for the media and Bitcoin skeptics to label it a ‘Bitcoin Scam’. It’s funny, because the Nigerian princes who promised thousands of dollars in the ‘Email Scams’ weren’t part of a ‘Dollar Scam’.
Typical media trying to bracket ‘Bitcoin’ and ‘Scam’ in the same breathe as always.
Twitter Hackers Fool Fools Out of Bitcoin
The accounts of many well-known Twitter accounts were overtaken by the hacker who hacked Twitter earlier today.
And many of the tweets from people such as, President Trump, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Apple, offered a bigger return of Bitcoin if people sent an amount to them, and some of the fools fell for it.
President Trump’s hacked account tweeted, ‘Short Ethereum’ and the also offered fantastic Bitcoin giveaway to anyone willing to send BTC to the address in the tweet.
And it appeared to some that Bill Gates was getting all philanthropic with Bitcoin after his account tweeted: ‘Everyone is asking me to give back. You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000.’
It’s amazing how anybody could fall for it. But they did.
It had nothing to do with Bitcoin. Bitcoin doesn’t do hacks or scams but of course the media were quick to label it as a Bitcoin Scam.
BBC as “diplomatic” as ever said ‘Major US Twitter accounts hacked in Bitcoin scam,’ typical and reflective response from most of the mainstream media.
Gold Bug and long time Bitcoin antagonist Peter Schiff was quick to promote gold on the back of the ‘Bitcoin Scam’.
‘I wonder if this is a harbinger of Bitcoin itself being hacked?’ asked the Schiffmeister before recommending what he believes to be a safer option: ‘Better to play it safe and just buy #gold.’
I appreciate his worry about my Bitcoin, but I don’t think Peter understands how Bitcoin works. It won’t get hacked, mate, believe me. Bitcoin is secured by 800,000 petaFLOPS.
If you don’t what that means, let’s compare with the most powerful supercomputer: Summit, which processes at 200 petaFLOPS. That’s right Bitcoin is 400,000 times more powerful.
Just think of it a secure as you can get and more, much more! Especially when it’s disseminated on hundreds of thousands of devices globally. Not like Twitter or any gold vault that is centrally located and is vulnerable.
The Twitter hack led some Bitcoin proponents to call it a marketing hack for Bitcoin.
Popular CT account MMCrypto claimed it was Bitcoin’s biggest promotion ever.
I doubt it was quite that, but I don’t think it did any harm to Bitcoin either. Some say all news is good news, and it got many talking about Bitcoin, but the truth is everybody knows about Bitcoin now anyway.
But a significant thing that has been overlooked is the Bitcoin price hardly budged. Any time in the past this would have crashed the price at least 10-20%, but it’s down around 1%. And not as much as most alts in what is supposed to be alt season.
The Twitter hack also strengthened the case for moving platforms like Twitter over to decentralized platforms.
Bitcoin, as stated earlier is as secure as you can get, and anything built on top of Bitcoin enjoys the security of the Bitcoin network, so it seems like a no brainer that Twitter will do its best to transition ontoa decentralized platform.
Twitter Hack, Not Bitcoin Scam
The media is always quick to try and slander Bitcoin, and any negative scandal helps their cause. So they think.
This wasn’t a negative for Bitcoin. It was negative for Twitter and the fools who fell for the scam.
Of course it’s not good publicity for Bitcoin, but it affected the price little, it also emphasized the necessity of decentralized platforms, and it will probably lead to the arrests of the hackers anyway, who don’t seem to understand Bitcoin is an open and transparent ledger.
Author: Tommy Limpitlaw
Bitcoin FAQs
Is Bitcoin a scam?
No, Bitcoin certainly isn’t a scam. It’s a decentralized cryptocurrency, that is controlled by no single entity. Nobody can change anything in the code, because it is secured by hundreds of thousands of computing devices around the world. These devices ensure that Bitcoin is the most secure network ever, and the integrity of Bitcoin cannot be changed without the majority vote of its users. If you really want to know what a scam is do some more research on the issuance of government money.
What is Bitcoin backed by?
Bitcoin is backed by mathematics, code and a distributed network of computing power that is over 400,000 times more powerful than the most powerful supercomputer.
Can you lose money on Bitcoin?
You certainly can lose money on Bitcoin. Many new investors see the gains Bitcoin has made and expect it to always be so. But the truth is, Bitcoin’s gains have come from holding on long term and riding the market. People expecting only gains, quickly lose faith when it crashes and lose money.
Who controls Bitcoin?
Nobody owns Bitcoin, just like no one owns the technology behind email. Bitcoin is controlled by anyone who wants to get involved in mining or running a Bitcoin node. There are hundreds of thousands of mining devices and these along with the nodes are the ones that control the protocol.
A Bitcoiner since 2017 and a Bitcoin Maximalist since 2018, Tommy is our main writer and editor at Bitcoin Maximalist. Other than researching and writing about Bitcoin, Tommy loves spending time with his family and supporting his beloved Leeds United.
