TS Today - Creating a Vision for the Future of Vacation Ownership Issue #159 May/Jun 2018 | Page 39

TimeSharing Today
Page 39
May/Jun, 2018
Bitcoin and ransomware
By Kristina Payne
I’m sure you’ve heard around the
internet about bitcoin. It’s a confusing
topic. Only those who are super inside
the tech world really know how it works
and how to use it. I’m here to explain
what Bitcoin is, how to use it, what its
dangers are, and its implications for the
vacation industry.
Bitcoin is the fi rst and most popular
kind of cryptocurrency, a type of digital
cash that works without a central fi gure
in the middle of every transaction. No
bank or company controls it. This is
what people mean when they call cryp-
tocurrency decentralized. However, this
presents a problem, because keeping
track of every transaction is diffi cult.
That’s where the blockchain comes
in. Blockchaining is a way to verify
transactions using cryptocurrency. Each
transaction links to the previous one,
and other users of that cryptocurrency
need to approve every transaction and
every change to the chain.
Automatic process
This is an automatic process that
happens in the background of most
computers, but most of the computers
involved with mining bitcoin have to
approve of a transaction.
If one section of the chain is
changed without approval, it ruins the
rest of the approved transactions. This
is meant to prevent fraud, and the list
of verifi ed transactions is distributed to
every participating computer.
So bitcoin—and other crypto-
currencies—are all distributed and
decentralized, which is what verifies
them internally.
A fi nite number
Mining bitcoin is how you acquire
more bitcoin, but this isn’t the same for
all cryptocurrency. Mining bitcoin re-
quires a computer to solve a math prob-
lem, and every time it gets a solution, a
bitcoin is mined. However, with only 21
million solutions to this problem, only 21
million bitcoins can exist in the world.
The most practical use for bitcoin
right now is to make online transactions
through your bitcoin wallet, but the bit-
coin market is volatile. The value of one
bitcoin isn’t stable, and it isn’t insured
or backed by any central agency. Thus,
its value outside of the internet is ques-
tionable and uninsurable.
Bitcoin also has been connected to
ransomware attacks, in which attackers
hack into websites or servers to take
control of information, and demand
money from the victims to return con-
trol of the data. In the past the attackers
usually asked for their ransom in bit-
coin, but that practice is less prevalent
today because of bitcoin’s instability.
Bitcoin is not the only crypto-
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