Monday, January 08, 2018

A Swiss Safe Haven for Bitcoins

When I was a teenager it was my good fortune to have gone on holiday several times to continental Europe from Britain. One such vacation was to Hertenstein, Lake Lucerne, in the heart of Switzerland. Opposite our lakeside chalet was the Burgenstock, a massive mountain like several others that encircle this body of water. To-day comes news of a secure hideaway on Lake Lucernce in some undisclosed mountain redoubt (perhaps the Burgenstock) where bitcoins, that runaway speculative world currency, can be stashed away by rich owners as a protection against theft. Apparently hacking of this cyber money is an ever present threat now as the value of one coin alone approaches the phenomenal amount of $20,000. Sixty millions worth were stolen in December 2017 alone. Consequently those with sufficient means and foresight to protect their bitcoins have turned to a Swiss company that has converted a former Swiss army underground bunker into an impenetrable vault. Since a bitcoin is not actually a metallic object rather just a digital code in the cyber sphere, what in actual fact is being protected are the owners’ codes. Organized crime and rogue states such as North Korea are suspected for the assaults on these valued investments. Source: Joon Ian Wong, CBC Radio, Day Six, January 6th, 2018.