Last week, President Barack Obama said he believes a balance must be sought between privacy and security. As one example of the risks of strong encryption, and seemingly referring to cryptocurrencies, Obama pointed out that if government can't access phones, "everybody is walking around with a Swiss bank account in their pocket."

...Several Bitcoin wallet apps currently offer "zero knowledge security" which ensures user data by generating private keys completely client side.

But what happens if Pandora's Box is opened? What if encryption is weakened or even broken by state agencies?

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, sees trying to break the encryption protecting one phone as having "extremely damaging implications" for the rights of many millions of people worldwide, with possible effects on their physical and financial security.

Obama, meanwhile, seemed to suggest that this kind of financial security should in fact not be absolute. He believes a balance must be struck, suggesting encryption should be weakened to allow government agencies access to encrypted phones in certain cases.