Mark Karpeles: Bitcoin Security Tech Needs an Update

Disgraced Mt. Gox manager Mark Karpeles is looking for a second act.

Karpeles, the author of the new book "Cryptocurrency 3.0", has come out as vocal proponent of improved security on the blockchain and bitcoin.

"It is dangerous that Bitcoin will continue to exist with the current encryption technology," he said in a wide-ranging interview with CoinDesk Japan.

In February 2014, Karpeles announced that hackers had stolen 850,000 bitcoin from Mt. Gox over the preceding year.

The site, originally a "Magic: The Gathering" trading site, morphed into a bitcoin exchange and was one of the first places many crypto luminaries bought and sold bitcoin.

Karpeles now believes that administrators must rebuild the entire bitcoin security infrastructure.

"There is still the risk of the virtual currency being stolen as a PC or hardware wallet may be hacked. In other words, with the current mechanisms and technologies, it is still impossible to eliminate risk. Innovation of cryptographic technology is a must," he said.

"The point is encryption technology. Bitcoin itself has been using a technology called ECDSA from the beginning, and has never been hacked," he said.

"However, as it is difficult to eliminate hacking damage, you will have to think that there is also no permanently safe cryptographic technology. It is dangerous that Bitcoin will continue to exist with the current encryption technology."

Karpeles wants security to be as simple - and visible - as the move from standard "Http" to web sites secured by Secure Socket Layer or Transport Layer Security.