Again, this is a consequence of the lack of regulatory oversight across the sector.ДЈ. As with many areas of tech in recent years, legislators have largely failed to keep pace with innovators (or scammers), leading to rich pickings for those seeking to exploit вЂњ FOMOвЂќ вЂ“ the вЂњfear of missing outвЂќ.Д®ven if, as a speculative investor in cryptocurrencies, you choose to stick to the relatively established coins such as Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ether, there is always a chance that the exchange or online wallet where you keep your coins will be hacked, shut down by governments due to shady practices, or simply abscond with your coins. Among the high profile cases is Oncecoin вЂ“ recently revealed as a ponzi scheme which is believed to have robbed millions from investors who believed they were getting in early on what would become the вЂњnext BitcoinвЂќ. Due to the lack of regulatory oversight, scams and market manipulation are commonplace. But the fact is, as many investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies for the first time in the last few months have found to their cost, itвЂ™s a very volatile environment. Lack of regulation creates a risky environmentДЄgain, this is largely a problem with Bitcoin or other value-based blockchain networks. Nevertheless, itвЂ™s an important consideration and the environmental implications as well as the energy costs canвЂ™t be ignored.Дў. Smaller scale blockchains вЂ“ such as those that an organisation may deploy internally to securely monitor and record business activity вЂ“ would consume a fraction of that. Yes, BitcoinвЂ™s blockchain is a hugely valuable network вЂ“ with a current market capacity at the time of writing of over $170 billion вЂ“ so sophisticated and computationally intense security is essential. Taking the most widely known and used blockchain as an example вЂ“ Bitcoin вЂ“ last year it was claimed that the computing power required to keep the network running consumes as much energy as was used by 159 of the worldвЂ™s nations. This essentially means that, in order to вЂњproveвЂќ that a user has permission to write to the chain, complex algorithms must be run, which in turn require large amounts of computing power. Blockchain relies on encryption to provide its security as well as establish consensus over a distributed network. Starting with perhaps the biggestвЂ¦ДЄt least, the way it is being used today, it does. HereвЂ™s a breakdown of some of the issues with blockchain that anyone thinking of using it should understand. However, it isnвЂ™t necessarily the cure-all panacea for the worldвЂ™s problems that many evangelists would have you believe. Blockchain is often touted as a world-changing technology and in many ways, it is.

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