As the cryptocurrency revolution rages, many questions are being raised regarding its uses and vulnerabilities. One such question is whether or not Bitcoin can be duplicated. The simple answer is no, it cannot, and neither can any cryptocurrency type, even when it is backed up. So the ultimate advice for bitcoin miners and owners is to back up their wallet.
Can Coin Wallets be Copied?
While people may think that their coin wallet actually stores the individual BTC on the hard drive, the wallet only holds the keys that enable coin transactions. The real coins are contained in the Block Chain. Only the individual that holds the private key can actually spend the coins held in the Block Chain.
Digital concepts are hard to understand as there is no physicality. When it comes to ownership of a Bit, it’s more about proving ownership, rather than actually physically owning it. When you have a key to the Block Chain, you can prove your ownership of the coins within, as the key enables you to access and use the coins for transactions. So while you can copy your coin wallet, you’re only copying the key, not the virtual contents within.
Can You Hack a Wallet or Block Chain?
The beauty of the BitCoin system is in its security and verification protocol. In theory, a person could try to hack their wallet or blockchain, but even if copies were made of the bitcoin to the point where your bitcoin numbers have greatly increased in number, when you tried to spend them, the network would reject the transaction; the public ledger system would recognize that the new coins don’t exist and are mere copies.
Network Security
The network’s security efficacy is due to the fact that each bitcoin owner has the transaction history through verification of signatures. When a miner creates the next Block in the chain by solving another mathematical equation, they earn additional bitcoins. Then the bitcoins are transferred only by a cryptographic signature. This system is described as ‘pass-it-forward’, and the wallet contains only the keys to pass it to the next individual, not the actual coins.
The wallet software and file only contain ‘private keys’ that when used with a one-way math equation will create public keys. Then the public keys and a one-way math equation generate the bitcoin addresses.
As the cryptocurrency market grows at an alarming rate, as within any new industry growth, there are teething pains, as well as those who will attempt to thwart the system for fraudulent means and personal gain. The verification and security features of bitcoin reside in its PTP transactions, cryptographic signatures, private and public keys, and the construction of the Block Chain. As copying a wallet is essentially copying a duplicated key, having more keys around does not equate to the number of Bit contained in the wallet. The advice for wallet owners worried about hacking and copying is to keep the wallet and private keys safe and secure by backing them up.
