The Great Bitcoin & Crypto Heists: A History

(And an Alternative)The Bitcoin and Crypto markets have been on a tear lately. I am very bullish on Bitcoin and Crypto, and I see this technology and investment asset changing the world and for the better.With this recent exploding market, there have been millions of new investors in the space. With reward comes risk. So I have recently written a few articles regarding the dangers and pitfalls that can exist in this new and exciting space. In this article, I am going to cover the history of centralized exchange hacks. These are exchanges, like Binance, Kraken, Coinbase, Gemini, or KuCoin, where you can buy, sell and trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. They are private businesses, and they have been at the forefront of bringing cryptocurrency to the world.Before you get the idea that I think all exchanges are bad, let me tell you, I don’t think they are.But I feel the following metaphor is appropriate.Exchanges are like a public bathroom — you go in, do your business and get out. I like this metaphor because it describes a healthy attitude instead of the extremes of being too scared or too careless.There have been some major hacks/exit scams over the years that have resulted in a lot of people thinking that their money was safe losing it all. In this article, I give a brief history lesson and some potential solutions.The History of HacksIn 2011, Mt. Gox was hacked and lost 2,609 Bitcoin (currently worth $159 million). The price of Bitcoin plummeted to $0.01. They managed to continue to operate and, by the time of their 2nd hack, were handling 70% of worldwide Bitcoin transactions.In February 2014, Mt. Gox froze all withdrawals and announced they lost 850,000 Bitcoin, worth $350 million at the time, and as of this writing, worth over…