If Twitter was a Decentralised Platform, Would Twitter Hackers Still Spread Bitcoin Scam?

Could a Decentralised Twitter Platform Protect Hacks?

The recent Twitter hack, however, intensified the need for a decentralized network for social media platforms. As bitcoin can never be hacked but twitter faced it. The reason might be the centralized platform of Twitter.

A crypto bull Pomp also tweeted the requirement of the decentralization and also invited the US Congressman Tom Emmer to discuss the issue on his podcast series.

CEO of WazirX exchange Nischal Shetty also in his tweet said the hack has shown the need for a decentralized social network or Decentralised Twitter Platform.

BlueSky – Decentralized Standard for Social Media Platforms

On the other hand, some users imagined if twitter was decentralized, only the users with cryptographic keys would have tweeted. Besides, they also note that the hate speech, cyberbullying and conspiracy could have been prevented.

Moreover, some of them feared that if the President’s account was hacked with unrelated posts, it would have affected the US Presidential election to a great extent. Hence the Twitter security was under the user’s radar.

It’s worth reminding that the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey last year revealed its plan to ‘develop an open and decentralized standard for social media’. He had added that the goal behind this approach would be ‘for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard’. While the project, named ‘BlueSky’ is yet to witness its major development, hackers were able to use ‘centralize Twitter’ to gain access to accounts of some of the high-profile people and companies. 

Twitter Bitcoin Scam incident in brief.! 

A number of twitter accounts with millions of followers were hacked to promote a bitcoin scam. The accounts include former President Barack Obama, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, Bitfinex, etc. The twitter message offered double the amount of BTC you deposit to the given bitcoin wallet address in the message. 

The hackers had gained access to Twitter accounts either probably paying the Twitter employees to use the tool or used the tool directly from a Twitter employee who compromised with them. Twitter suspended all the high-profile accounts to conduct the investigation and removed all the tweets of the hacker. Currently, all the accounts have resumed their activity and Twitter suggested to change their passwords.

As per the reports, approximately 12 BTC has been stolen in the hack with more than 150 incoming transactions. However, the netizens call this attack a money heist rather than a hack.

Why Twitter Hackers Only Opt for Bitcoin?

The perpetrators offered to double the BTC, a user sends to the bitcoin wallet address. Some of the users really wondered why hackers choose Bitcoin more than any other altcoins. The probable reasons bitcoin was preferred was,

• It is censorship-resistant. Meaning, no third party can block the transactions to the scammer’s address unless and until their BTC is stored on an exchange.

• The transactions are irreversible but yet traceable. Once the BTC is deposited into an account, it cannot be reversible.

• Another reason might be many people hold Bitcoins as it has the highest value among the other cryptocurrencies. 

Separated from the crowd, Gold supporter and Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff utilized the whole scenario to yet again promote investing in Gold rather than BTC. 

Summarizing the whole story.! – Twitter security today faced many red waves from the netizens as the accounts with millions of followers were hacked and stole BTC. However, stolen BTC can be traced but cannot be confiscated like any other property. Hence, we urge the crypto community to trade safely without falling prey to any scam.