#crypto philippines

Crypto has been around for a little more than a decade but it was only in recent years that we've seen its massive adoption in so many markets. In the Philippines, one of the first pieces of news about Bitcoin was way back in January 2014. Cryptocurrency is a form of currency that exists digitally or virtually and uses cryptography to secure transactions. Cryptocurrencies do not have a central issuing or regulating authority. Many would agree that crypto is both exciting and disruptive. While the decentralized nature and anonymity of crypto are among its biggest strengths, it has also opened up opportunities for online fraud. In essence, the strategy in this particular incident was like this -- identify hackable online bank accounts (in this case, BDO), transfer funds to an intermediary bank where you can siphon money to a fictitious or dummy bank account (in this case, UnionBank) and then use the collected funds to buy crypto-currency (in this case, Bitcoin). Since the crypto account is anonymous, the true owner can no longer be traced nor the funds be retrieved. Read more in our articles including "Crypto has made hacking online banks more rewarding" and "Blockchain games you probably haven't heard of".