The digital currency, which came to the agenda with Safiye G. Y., a female broker nicknamed "Bitcoin Safiye" who defrauded hundreds of people from all over Turkey on the virtual money bitcoin exchange, is an encrypted and digital currency. Experts define Bitcoin, which entered our lives with a document published by a person or group nicknamed Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, as an open-source, encrypted and digital currency that is not connected to a central organization. Experts warn that "people should not resort to investment instruments that are not under their control and whose reliability has not been fully tested".
Prof. Dr. Serhat Özekes, Faculty Member of Üsküdar University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Computer Engineering and Institute of Forensic Sciences, emphasized that Bitcoin has become a popular investment tool in our country, but caution should be exercised.
Prof. Dr. Serhat Özekes stated that Bitcoin, which can be denoted by the abbreviation BTC, is a technology that is not affiliated with any institution or organization and is open to everyone's use, "The digital global ledger containing Bitcoin transfer transactions is called Blockchain. People can easily use the Bitcoins they own through programs called Bitcoin wallets. BTC can be exchanged for Turkish Lira, US Dollar, Euro or other currencies at any time."
Be careful when using digital currency as an investment tool!
Prof. Dr. Serhat Özekes also evaluated the fraud incident that came to the agenda with Safiye G. Y., called Bitcoin Safiye, who introduced herself as an economist and broker in Aydın and was caught in Bursa:
"In this case, 40 people from various professions, ranging from nurses to police officers, accused Safiye. G. Y. as an economist-broker and believed in her promises of high earnings and were defrauded of 30 million liras for 600 Bitcoins in total. This incident shows us how popular Bitcoin has become as an investment tool in our country. However, there is a serious risk for people who do not have sufficient knowledge about digital currencies to entrust their investments to an intermediary with their eyes closed and wait for the result from a closed box that they do not know what is inside. Considering the similar fraud cases in our country, people should not resort to investment instruments that are not under their control and whose reliability has not been fully tested."
Bitcoin has not yet completed its development
Stating that Bitcoin has not yet completed its development and is an experimental currency that has only existed in the last 10 years of human history, Prof. Dr. Serhat Özekes said, "As the knowledge about Bitcoin increases, it may become a safer investment instrument. The establishment of a Blockchain technological research laboratory through TUBITAK and the news that the implementation of a Blockchain-based digital central bank currency is planned in the 2020 Presidential annual program are important developments in the direction of raising public awareness about digital currencies. In addition, by controlling the companies that buy and sell encrypted digital currencies with laws and ensuring the legal security of individuals, an environment of trust will be created and fraudsters such as the Bitcoin Safiye incident can be prevented from deceiving the society."
Why is Bitcoin valuable?
Prof. Dr. Serhat Özekes, who conducts studies on data mining and artificial intelligence, stated that the Bitcoin system is designed to produce a total of 21 million Bitcoins. Prof. Dr. Serhat Özekes said, "As of November 2019, 85% of all Bitcoins have been produced with 18 million units and the market value is around 165 million dollars. Since the SHA-256 hash function is used in its infrastructure and new Bitcoins to be produced by Bitcoin miners using high-performance computers (Bitcoin miners) must reach a hash value that has not been produced before, the process of producing each new Bitcoin block is becoming increasingly difficult. Considering the increasing difficulty of Bitcoin production, which is 1800 Bitcoins per day, it is estimated that the last Bitcoin will be produced in 2140. Although Bitcoin is the first and most widely used cryptocurrency, there are more than 2300 cryptocurrencies. The total market value of cryptocurrencies is around 245 million dollars."
Preferred because identity information remains confidential
Prof. Dr. Serhat Özekes also touched upon the issue of the confidentiality of user identity information in purchases made using Bitcoin on the Internet, and said: "For reasons such as the confidentiality of identity information and the difficulty of tracing it, Bitcoin is mostly used in illegal purchases in the darkweb environment, which constitutes a large part of the internet environment and refers to the dark side of the internet. In addition to online wallets, mobile wallets, offline wallets, physical wallets and paper wallets used to store Bitcoin, which is seen as an investment instrument with its increasing volume, Bitcoin exchanges are often preferred by investors due to their easy use. On the Bitcoin exchange, the price of Bitcoin may fluctuate depending on factors that may affect other traditional currencies."