Many people believe that the digital currency such as – bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are the trendiest investment and opportunity currently accessible. Certainly, there are so many stories of individuals becoming millionaires through Bitcoin investments, for example Mr. Smith from the article “Meet The Man Traveling The World on $25 Million of Bitcoin Profits” (Bishop, J. 2017) . Starting with an investment of only $3,000.00, paying just over $0.15 per Bitcoin to an appreciating price hit of $800 sometime later. Successfully, owning 1,000.00 BTC, worth $2.6 million with plans to continue to invest in the currency. Though Bitcoin is the most valued and fast digital currency to date, cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can make it easier to transact illegal activities, but there are other ethical questions that can arise when considering bitcoin as a possible investment.
This digital or virtual currency is not like other assets. They’re not always easy to protect and Bitcoin thefts are not uncommon. Unfortunately, these exchanges can potentially get hacked and a lot of fraudsters are enjoying the cryptocurrency market. With the currency being decentralized and can be most likely used anonymously, it can be used to in money laundering, tax evasion schemes, illegal goods, and services. In a decentralized network like Bitcoin, every single participant needs to do this job. This is done via the Blockchain – a public ledger of all transaction that ever happened within the network, available to everyone. Therefore, everyone in the network can see every account’s balance. The reason the market can be so attractive to fraudsters, it’s because transaction are irreversible. Which have lead many to believe that the Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are just fraudulent investments.