Crypto crime is the future; bank heists are history

WITH Bitcoin reaching a new record, it shows that more investors are getting swept up in the dream of “being their own bank” via tokens that can be transferred instantly and anonymously outside the traditional financial system. Yet at the same time, there seems to be too little awareness of the cost of being your own bank security guard in a cashless world.

A recent double-digit rise in crypto-exchange hacks and a wave of brazen crypto-executive kidnapping attempts – with the latest taking place in broad daylight on the streets of Paris – has put the industry on edge and ramped up interest in security, according to Bloomberg News, with 23 such attacks recorded this year by one database (up from six over the same period last year). They have resulted in grisly mutilations, such as severed fingers, and have pressured the French government to do more to stop them, even if statistically France scores relatively well on crimes such as homicide.

This goes way beyond one country; crime is changing everywhere. Banks are no longer easy or juicy targets for robbers, with heists down more than 80 per cent since the 1990s as branches close and piles of cash hoarded in safes become a rarity. We are also all carrying less cash in a payments world driven by taps and swipes. Personal safety was one reason put forward by ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus a decade ago for making Sweden a cashless economy.