Blockchain Is Not Secure As Claimed: MIT Professor

Blockchain is not secure as it was portrayed before according to an MIT professor Stuart Madnick. He made a study on blockchain stating that the technology has flaws and we read more about in the latest cryptocurrency news below.

The professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is also the founding director of the Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan research consortium, highlighted in his study that the technology is not secure as many believe it is.

The study analyzed about 70 cases of publicly reported security breaches in blockchain systems over a period of seven years thus developing a taxonomy of blockchain vulnerabilities. Among the major issues that are outlined in the study are distributed control and anonymity and transparency which are the key advantages of the blockchain technology.

While transparency is the one key element that enables people to view the software and verify that there are no flaws, it is also allowing them to easily access and to explore other flaws and features that are not yet discovered and observed by others according to Madnick.

Distributed control means that there is no centrally-positioned ‘’on and off’’ switches such as the ones in the traditional systems. Madnick believes that a pure example of a traditional centralized system is the stock market which constantly runs into issues such as flash crash which leads the market to shut down.

As for anonymity, Madnick points out that it is impossible to access a users’ blockchain account if they lose the key since it is the only way to identify someone and this is also one of the reasons why the blockchain is used for illegal transactions and ransomware payments. Madnick pointed out:

 “The bottom line is that while the blockchain system represents advances in encryption and security, it is vulnerable in some of the same ways as other technology, as well as having new vulnerabilities unique to blockchain. In fact, human actions or inactions still have significant consequences for blockchain security.”

These are the reasons why Madnick believes blockchain is not secure as everyone thought it was especially since the head of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology at the WEF Sheila Warren pointed out as noted in the altcoin news:

 “This technology could provide access to information that could enable third parties or other groups to actually come in and conduct audits of what is happening. And I actually think that could build faith back in institutions.”