One has to be careful when dealing in digital currencies given the number of scammers operating who are simply looking to make a quick buck. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak personally experienced bitcoin fraud when he was scammed out of $75,000 worth of coins. He had seven bitcoins stolen from him through fraud. “The blockchain identifies who has bitcoins… that doesn’t mean there can’t be fraud though” he said at a recent business summit.
Wozniak is well known for his love of technologies so it doesn’t come as a surprise that he’s fond of bitcoin. “Bitcoins to me was a currency that was not manipulated by the governments. It is mathematical, it is pure, it can’t be altered,” he said.
However, he added that fraud is prevalent in the digital currency space despite the pure nature of bitcoin. Woz bought bitcoin back when they were trading at $700 and later tried to sell them to someone online who purchased them through the credit card.
However, the buyer canceled the credit card payment after the transaction was done and the bitcoin were transferred. The credit card itself used for the purchase was stolen so there was no way to hold someone to account.
Woz didn’t say whether he sold his holdings when bitcoin was trading around $20,000 a piece, but even at today’s values the money that he lost comes to around $75,000. He does mention that he hadn’t invested in bitcoin rather he had purchased them so that he could one day travel without having to carry credit cards, wallets or cash.
Woz has since sold all except one bitcoin because he didn’t want to watch the price every day. “It was enough to experiment,” he says.
Filed in . Read more about Bitcoin and Steve Wozniak. Source: economictimes.indiatimes