ProBit: On the Security of Crypto Exchanges.

in #bitcoin5 years ago (edited)

One of the foundational benefits of blockchain technology is that people can control their wealth, but that also means that they must safeguard it on their own.

Protecting Crypto assets is difficult and the wealthy simply utilize custody services to safeguard their cryptocurrencies; meanwhile, the average Joe has to work hard to safeguard his/her keys. However, there is one Crypto engagement that involves relying on a third party to safeguard one’s funds: trading.

A person doesn’t need to be a day-trader to have to use an exchange. Exchanges are the gate-way to Crypto; they provide the means to enter the market, move on to new investments, and to liquidate assets. Nearly everyone in this market has used an exchange at some point in his/her life.

A Focus on Exchange Security


A newly launched exchange, ProBit, has taken great efforts to ensure that its users’ funds are given an unparalleled amount of security.

This is good news for the Crypto market because, as it stands, most exchanges are either indifferent to user funds or simply do not disclose the means with which they are handling user funds. A research by the largest cryptocurrency derivatives platform, BITMEX, shows that less than a third of cryptocurrency exchanges secure the vast portion of user funds in cold wallets.

Cold wallets are a costly operation for exchanges and require a painstaking amount of effort to maintain. Thus, exchanges forego this security means even though it is the most important and effective way to secure users’ funds. This does not justify exchanges habit of foregoing the use of cold wallets as these are the most effective means to keep users’ funds away from hackers.

Unlike the norm, ProBit is taking the effort to place at least 95% of user funds in cold wallet.

This will be a costly measure for this new exchange and will make break-even more difficult given that ProBit charges the lowest fees in the market to PROB users. Market-makers paying fees with PROB will have to pay a minimal fee of 0.025%—that’s $5 per $10,000. This shows that the exchange is taking the risk of valuing user security even when offering minimal fees in the hope that the community will recognize these community-centric efforts and will be a part of the platform in order to voice the support for lower fees and greater security.

Thwarting Breaches

BITMEX’s report managed to shed light on more than just the usage of cold wallets. Unsurprisingly, 89% of cryptocurrency exchanges have been hacked. This is due to lax safety precautions. The lack of cold wallet usage simply meant that large sums of user funds were easily compromised.

However, proper security measures need to be undertaken. ProBit recognizes that an exchange’s security measures should be so robust that cold wallets are just a final measure of defense.

ProBit sits upon one of the most—if not the most—powerful exchange engines in the market, capable of handling over 1.5 million orders per second. This ensures that the system never weakens.

However, ProBit has not sacrificed security for the sake of operational prowess. It will utilize FIDO U2F hardware security key to thwart hackers. An industry leader, Yubico, explains that FIDO allows, “users to securely access any number of online services with one single security key instantly and with no drivers or client software needed. FIDO is the latest generation of the U2F protocol.”

On a closing note, it’s important to mention that while an exchange must handle the security of the funds allocated to it, users must handle the security of their account. ProBit takes all the measures to assist users in their efforts to secure the account and they will have to bind a two-factor authentication to the account. This means that simply having an account’s password won’t be enough to access it.

Regardless, you must always take appropriate caution in keeping all your accounts safe; be sure to safeguard all account passwords and habitually update them to retain utmost security on your end.


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Great information @hatu

The two main characteristics that both a novice in cryptomoneda and a veteran investor are looking for are transaction speed and security, with so many attacks on exchanges few know which exchange to trust and ProBit seems an excellent choice.

Enjoy your day, Piotr.

Dear @azhar71

I cannot suggest any investment. Myself Im not interested so much with financial aspects of blockchain and crypto. Im more fascinated with social aspects of those technologies.

Yours
Piotr

Its fake title, cold wallet has no security for people, its against bitcoin philosophy. You give away private keys, which should be hold only and only by user and never give it to internet. But if want y can give your keys from house to someone in bank to see if your house will be safe.

The point is not to utilize it as a bank.
When needing an exchange, it's best to opt for those that do have cold wallets.

I burn in many exchanges(cryptorush, cryptsy, wex), which promise me how the system is great and secure. But its foolish post that into bitcoin tag and go against its philosophy.

You can hold the disregard you have for exchanges but, without them, acquiring coins without mining or tokens post-ICO would be an extremely difficult task.

The next era of tokens, STOs, is on the horizon, and exchanges will play an even bigger role in it.

Also, your own actions go against your beliefs. You purchased STEEM via exchanges.

Appreciate your kind and comment @ftoz

Have a great upcoming weekend
Piotr

I am telling it from experience. Dont want say "Its cool, amazing". Its total shit.

I fully understand @ftoz

Is Fido 2 factor authentication more secure than other authentication methods like Authy or Google authenticator? It's good to know that these exchanges are using cold storage, but I find most exchanges (the ones I use) to be secure right now already. Also, regarding your message earlier about Blocktrades...How do we withdraw Steem and sell it on Binance instead of using Blocktrades to convert it to ETH or BTC? I just haven't really spent much time yet trying to figure this out yet.

The fact that you trust your exchange is great! Clearly without the trust of their customers, they could not operate, but Mt Gox seemed secure to most people as well. Storing your coins in the exchange instead of a cold wallet will always represent a higher risk. As long as people are realistically aware of the risk and are willing to accept it, then I think you're fine. 2fa is your best friend, but it sounds like you know that. If you are handling an amount of money that you would be a bit more than upset to see disappear tomorrow, it is probably best to store it offline.

Certainly, exchanges should not be used as banks. However, the point being made is that 95% of coins deposited for the purpose of trading will be placed in cold wallets. The focus is on the security of traded assets.

@the4thmusketeer
This will help you.

Fido 2 is the back-end of 2FA; Authy is the front-end users utilize. As for the security factor, a large portion of exchanges keep a limited number of Crypto in cold wallets and that places those coins/tokens at risk.

absolutely

The problem of most trading platforms is the risk of losing their funds at any time even with both factors nobody can guarantee that the platform will fall one day and eventually all users will lose their money ! I hope ProBit resolves these security fears.

Since most of the assets are in cold wallet, the funds are out of reach even if there is a breach.

Very instructive!

Crypto security should be the of utmost importance for all investors, interesting project thanks for sharing.

Probit is a good exchange. In fact they are breaking grounds. I saw their bounty few weeks ago, but I noticed they ain't giving their tokens as reward. @hatu do you know why they did this?

They intend to preserve the value of the native token.

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