Tesla announced last week that they had invested $1.5B in Bitcoin. Having somewhat of a background in corporate governance, but no background in cryptocurrency and blockchain, this concerns me as a stockholder or as a board member. But I suspect it is due to my own ignorance of blockchain.
My concern is that, with the alleged anonymity of bitcoin, wouldn't it be super easy for an employee to steal that bitcoin and get away with it? My understanding is that bitcoin is stored in a secured virtual wallet and a passcode is needed to access it. So whomever has that passcode can just move money to their own anonymous wallet.
So how do companies handle that? Obviously, some companies are holding the bitcoin themselves and hold it through a broker or some other 3rd party. But then that 3rd party has the same issue. Even the new Bitcoin ETF - if they hold the bitcoin themselves, how do they secure it?
My understanding is that every bitcoin is in a wallet somewhere. And that wallet is accessible - anonymously - by anyone who has the passcode. Just seems like a very easy embezzlement opportunity. And one that is easy to cover up, and that law enforcement is likely ill equipment to deal with.
Submitted February 22, 2021 at 06:15PM by Bobby_does_reddit https://ift.tt/3uhxDka
