Security and Privacy Issues of Blockchain Technology

Abstract

Blockchain is a technology that is developed using a combination of various techniques such as mathematics, algorithms, cryptography, economic models, etc. Blockchain is a public ledger of all crypto currency transactions that are digitized and decentralized. All the transactions of cryptocurrencies are stored in chronological order to help users in tracking the transactions without maintaining any central record of the transactions. Application prospects of blockchain are promising and have been delivering the result since its inception. Blockchain technology has evolved from initial cryptocurrency to new-age smart contracts and has been implemented and applied in many fields. Although a lot of studies have been carried out on the security and privacy issues of blockchain, but a systematic examination on the security of blockchain systems is still missing. In this chapter, we will try to demonstrate a systematic illustration on the security threats to blockchain and survey the corresponding real attacks by examining popular blockchain systems. We will discuss the security and the privacy of blockchain along with their impact with regards to different trends and applications in this chapter. The chapter is intended to discuss key security attacks and the enhancements that will help develop better blockchain systems.