Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey has always endorsed bitcoins. Dorsey has also founded a payments company called Square Crypto to initiate development of cryptocurrencies and spread awareness of what he considers the currency of the future. However, the twitter hacked placed on July 16, 2020, may change the impressions of how cryptocurrencies are perceived. The twitter hacked has raised regulators eyes into considering a more stringent regulations for money laundering norms and financing of illegal activities. Earlier this year in April 11, 2020 the European Parliament has also suggested broadening the scope of anti-money laundering (‘AML’) and counter financing of terrorism (‘CFT’) norms to meet the realities of the cryptocurrency’s ecosystem.
The Twitter hack was not the first the first which demanded the payment in bitcoins. The Mt. Gox hack back in 2014 which led to a loss of almost USD 460 million with the theft of almost 744,408 bitcoins, had also raised eyes in the spectre of cryptocurrencies and till date serves as a purpose of why certain nations are not open minded in allowing trading and mining of cryptocurrencies in their jurisdictions. The Twitter hack had was attacked on major entrepreneurs and public speakers such as Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Joe Biden. The message on their respective twitter feeds required users to send in USD 1000 to a particular bitcoin account on the promise that they would receive back USD 2000. After the hack, the Chair of the State Commerce committee in the United States has also contacted Twitter regarding the hack and has stated that Twitter shall brief the committee regarding the details of the hack no later than July 23, 2020.
With countries already planning to implement stringent AML/CFT laws for cryptocurrencies, the hack plays as a catalyst for developing not only policy but technical measures as well for various cryptocurrencies exchanges. Moreover, since there is no remedy currently for getting back the money which has already been transferred through crypto wallets, making it close to impossible for receiving any compensation for the lost money. Nations may start looking closely into the technical regime of cryptocurrencies exchanges to comprehend what is needed for the future of payments. Currently, almost 400 payments were exchanged amounting to USD 121,000 through the Twitter hack. For this purpose, regulators need to look into technical aspects of the blockchain network and cryptocurrencies transfer to locate the source of the hack and also to prevent any future fraudulent transactions.
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