"And, unfortunately", he adds, "the Gold Rush mentality has attracted many bad actors to this space."
Risks are "pretty well understood" however, according to Kara Ward, financial services regulatory and legislative attorney at Venable LLP, who comments: "Limited supply, varying demand and government regulation have been impacting the prices of currencies, causing dramatic fluctuation with very little predictability.
"It is also somewhat risky to use as a money transmission method, beacuse there are very few regulations and mandated consumer protections."
She adds that, in comparison to traditional money transmission, where there are disclosures and guarantees to cover fraud and loss, there are none of those with cryptocurrencies.
Hacking
During 2017 and early this year, various news stories broke of certain types of malware targeting cryptocurrency.
One such malware, called CryptoShuffler, was spotted by security system Kaspersky Lab using a rather simple tactic to steal cryptocurrency from users: copy and paste.
Because many users copy and then paste the recipients' wallet identification into transaction destination fields, the code developed by CryptoShuffler can monitor clipboard activity until it detects these wallet string characteristics.
It then intercepts the copied string and replaces it with one that will send the virtual money right into the hands of the hackers.
The strings can look so familiar that unless the user double checks both codes, the recipient who has paid to receive the bitcoin will be out of pocket.
And, because this is not a regulated financial marketplace, investors cannot seek recompense from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or any other jurisdictional body.
Side-effects of crypto generation
There is also the huge environmental concern around the mining of cryptocurrencies, which draws significant amounts of energy from countries' national grid.
While not all cryptocurrencies are mined - in fact, some of the newer tokens are valued purely on the basis of volume of ownership, rather than what a person can mine - some commentators have warned an unintended consequence of large-scale mining of Bitcoin is devouring energy, with a subsequent additional negative impact on the environment.
Advantages and opportunities
So what are the upsides to those who want to do web-based transactions without borders, without rules and without restrictions?
Flexibility and freedom are certainly high on the list. In theory, according to Ms Ward, the opportunities of using cryptocurrency and the ledger technology behind it are "limited only by imagination and functionality".
She says: "It if can be built, it may work."
