FIAT FAIL : 500,000 COUNTERFEIT EUROS DISCOVERED

One of the great things about cryptocurrency is that it cannot be counterfeited. All currency in the system is known to all holders at all times. While the theoretical 51% attack might allow a bad actor to deny transactions ever took place by not confirming them and possibly spend the same coins twice, this is not the same thing as someone with the right equipment being able to arbitrarily manufacture as much of the currency as they would like.
A good reminder of this fact came on 24 December when the Times reported on the 24th that a Shanghai-based gang had successfully counterfeited and shipped 500,000 fake 1 coins to Italy in September, getting caught by chance. The counterfeit coins were of very high quality, replicating the bi-metallic coin in such a way as to imply that they were made with very similar equipment to the authentic ones. These counterfeits are so good that there is fear they are actively being used in vending machines.

This post was published at Crypto Coins News on December 26, 2014.

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