The worry of investors' assets continues to be on a continuous surge. One thing is making money or should I say creating a well of income another thing is safeguarding it. Safety seems to be depreciating day after day. The rise of the internet seemed to be the emergent hope for wealth storage but it has continued to be on a constant threat. With unhealthy practices by illicit groups to frustrate the whole technology some may feel storing assets in tangible form is quite better.
If you think so, why did investors choose online asset storage in the first place?. Though they have met some unfavorable situations down there, don't you think something prompted this move?. Yes the insecurity faced in keeping tangible assets has also been on the rise. Criminals are not only online. The emergence of criminal acts first surfaced in the real world before taking a bold step to looth the internet.
Aside from the criminal act, the one that has continued to threaten offline(tangible) asset storage has been the increasing act of war. War drains wealth from your very eyes. The level of destruction during war situations has brought worries to how safe assets can be between cybercriminals and wars.
September Cybercrime Surge
If you haven't read my post about September crypto cyber attacks, I would advise you to. September has held a record loss of funds to hackers surmounting to over $300 million only in crypto space. Experts predict an increase in the few months and years to come. You know what such news holds to you when you have some assets stored online. I must say, there is no safe haven, though some may seem more secure than others. The idea of storing assets in a cold wallet also has its own dangers though it may help mitigate the chances of loss. What if you lose the USB?. In my own view, storing assets in a cold wallet is more of keeping tangible assets which is also prone to offline criminal acts or misplacements in times of war. You know, the first safety during times of war should be you.
Hackers are becoming more and more skillful with a lot of cybercrime products and tutorials being sold on the darknet market, you never can tell their next moves. The funny part about this is that they are sold cheap causing these cybercriminals to flood the market. If I want to list the cyber attack act just in 2023, the question would be, what does 2024 hold for us.
Thinking of Going Back to Tangible Asset Storage?
As I earlier said, there is no safe haven, I wouldn't really advise anyone to rely on the current world system. The way war breaks out in the blink of an eye is becoming unbearable. From local, to religious, to ethnical, to national and reaching international level, the question remains; are we advancing to test weapons.
I have seen local conflicts end a business venture that took years to establish and on its verge of making profit, a local conflict broke out in the community leading to loss of life and property. The whole business venture was burnt down. If such at the local level can be that destructive, how about countries going against countries?
The Russian Ukrainian War
Since its inception on February, 2022, if you want to follow the level of fund misplacement this war has caused and how investors have had to settle for less or even nothing, the idea of tangible asset safety may look so unreal. One of the difficulties of tangible assets is how to move with it. You will have a choice, either to stay and perish with it or safeguard your life by letting go of all you might have worked for.
All the buildings, facilities that has been destroyed during the war, don't you think people own them?. Companies have had to close, businesses fold, many move on to start life over. The impact of war on assets can be damaging, not even talking about the fact that it affected the Russian currency value in the market. Russian foreign investors were stripped of their assets in various countries and forced to return to their countries. Imagine the loss.
Israel Palestine Conflict
In case you are yet to know, Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack by air, sea and land on Saturday against Israel. This has drawn a battle line as Israel has declared war with Hamas. Anyhow you want to view it, in the end facilities will be bombed down, humans will be displaced, companies will shut down, fiat currency price will decrease and in general, tangible assets will be drained. Investors continue to be an unfavorable merry-go-round in the pursuit of safety. I only wish it ends soonest to reduce the level of loss to be incurred.
Impact of Cybercrime and War in the Financial Market
Both Cybercrime and War play a negative role in the financial market. We all know what the Russian Ukrainian war caused to the financial market, FTX hacked in November 2022, also added to market instability. When online investment seems unsafe, investors will always pull out their assets for safety.
Is There a Safe Country to Store Assets?
Even if there was, we all know everyone cannot do business in one or only a few countries. The idea of clustering business in countries tagged to be much safer would on a long run create its own chaos. It will be a game of high taxation, unfavorable business laws not even talking about the fact that all eyes would be in such places to also take advantage and milk the system.
Wrapping things up I will say, I am sometimes left to ask myself questions about how secure an asset can be. From running from cyber criminals to wars we thought we had escaped our assets from. We all know cyber attacks may never end. It's painful when we say we are advancing yet war continues to be the order of the day. Why continue to increase investors' worry. My advice to investors out there would be to secure what you can for in my personal view, there is actually no safety.