Transaction Cloning Costs the Global Economy Billions of Dollars and Nerves Blockchain Shows the Way Out
The global economy grows in leaps and bounds daily, yet, it is beset by the setbacks that arise from transaction cloning. Transaction cloning arises not just on internet-driven social media accounts, but also in blockchain-driven systems. This is the underlying basis for the revolutionary safeguards that are built into the Nerves platform.
The Background
Ever since currency became digital, hacking and stealing them online has become prevalent and probably the top motivator for committing crimes on the Internet. After all, it’s so much easier to steal funds online at the comfort of your own home than it is to physically steal one from a bank. Ease of transactions also means ease of potential theft
Blockchain technology, with its decentralized approach, aims to prevent such theft through making the transaction data immutable by design. The blockchain network ensures that each transaction is valid and signed off and agreed upon by all nodes in the network. And once data is stored in the blockchain, it stays there. No changes can be made. Hence, data can’t be manipulated. No adding zeroes here or there!
It’s not completely hacks or fraud proof, though. Though hacking and manipulating transactions themselves is next to impossible with Blockchain, it is still susceptible to fraud and cyber theft through exploiting other loopholes in the system. Private keys can still be targeted by cyber criminals to gain access to your account, usually by taking advantage of people’s gullible nature. Some blockchain projects are simply money scams, riding on the crypto currency craze to lure people into get rich quick schemes.
The Cloning-Prevention Measures
Nerves, a next generation blockchain project with the goal of connecting different blockchains together into a singular seamless network, tries to address these problems head on. With such an ambitious goal, security of users’ transaction data is of paramount importance, including preventing transaction cloning, tight access controls, cloning of access credentials, and unauthorized data retrieval.
First off, the Nerves system requires a private key and public key to be able to access your account. Public keys serve as the identity of your account online; anyone can see it and is the information people need to be able to send money or data to your account, for example. Private keys, on the other hand, are like your personal password, known only to you and used to access your accounts and authorize transactions.
Private and public keys are generated by a unique algorithm in a kind of signature scheme. A finite field defined by a prime number is used to create the private key, and the public key is also created from a similar process, indirectly from the private key.
Private keys themselves can be very risky being a singular failure point, as they are easily hacked and compromised, especially as cyber attackers continue to develop more and more sophisticated tools. Nevertheless, private keys serve as a standard, good initial line of defense against hackers. But more is needed
For the second layer of defense, the Nerves network makes use of a passphrase requirement built into the access layer. If the private key is compromised, and an attacker gains unauthorized access to your account, that attacker would be unable to make transactions without the passphrase. This makes the hack worthless.
Passphrases are basically an answer to a set security question provided by the owner of the account or node that ideally, only he or she knows the answer to. The passphrase is established at the point of setting of the account authorization as to securely regulate access to it. This additional layer safeguards users’ private keys from outside theft and, even occasionally, from their own negligence or lack of protection. If ever their private key gets exposed due to a hack, malware or simple carelessness, the passphrase guarantees their account would still be relatively safe.
The third layer of defense employs multi-signature authorization. This mechanism requires all transactions to fulfill the set number of signatures for it to be valid. The more digital signatures are required, the more secure and stable the system is. This makes the simple cloning of a single signature insufficient, as an attacker would need all valid signatures to access your account.
Multi-signature authorization can also be used beyond account protection. Other system wide decisions can also require multi-signature authorization from admins or other stakeholders. This makes it difficult for anyone to manipulate and implement changes to the systems for exploitation. Attackers can’t, for instance, manipulate the system to grant themselves access control or change account details or permissions. This final layer of protection is arguably the most powerful that puts a stop to any hacking attempt.
Securing the Platform
The great thing about security in the Nerves framework is that it also extends to system wide implementation, not just with individual users. This limits the damage or access an attacker can do to a system, which might put the entire network and all its users in a vulnerable situation.
Even with all its robustness and multi-layer protection, security is still the responsibility of each individual user. The most powerful and defensive security protocol can’t protect from carelessness and negligence, though the Nerves system makes damage stemming from this less so.
The Nerves system promises a blockchain-enabled world by using a different approach. Rather than compete with other blockchain projects, it creates a network ecosystem that connects all these blockchain networks together, giving users and data unprecedented freedom that is sure to usher in revolutionary ways and applications of blockchain technology
To End
On the Nerves platform, security is paramount. The dangers of hacking, cloning transactions and unauthorized access is more present than ever. Nerves tackles this with a multi-tiered approach to security. Private keys are complemented by a passphrase setup that ensures every transaction is authorized. A final security wall comes in the form of a multi-signature authorization system that protects individual accounts as well as the larger system itself from malicious attacks.
Nerves has put a lot of thought and analysis on where previous generation blockchains have lacked or failed when it comes to the security of its users and the network. With the primary concern of security being tackled admirably, the dream of having blockchain adopted by most users worldwide comes ever closer to reality.
🌐Official Website: https://nerves.foundation
📄Whitepaper: http://nerves.foundation/NERVES_Whitepaper_English.pdf
Ⓜ️Medium: https://medium.com/nerves-foundation
📣Announcement: https://t.me/NervesAnnouncement
🌏Telegram Global (EN): https://t.me/NervesGlobal
🇰🇷Telegram Korea (KR): https://t.me/NervesKorea
🔘Twitter: https://twitter.com/NerFoundation
®Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/NerFoundation
◎Github: https://github.com/NerFoundation
