Security and Privacy Issues in Blockchain Technology

Abstract

Blockchain technology has a plethora of applications ranging from cryptocurrency to today’s smart contracts. Blockchain has eight important elements, such as decentralization, consensus model, transparency, open-source, identity and data security, autonomy, immutability, and anonymity. Security and privacy are vital aspects of Blockchain technology. Security in blockchain is dealt with by preserving the transactional data in a block against internal, peripheral, and unintentional threats. Security can be ensured by detection and protection of threats, providing an appropriate response to the threats by applying security tools, policies, and IT services. Privacy in blockchain involves the ability to perform transactions without leakage of identification information. Although there are a number of studies which focus on the security and privacy issues, there lacks a brief examination on the security of blockchain systems. In this chapter, we present an elaborate study on the security and privacy to the blockchain. Furthermore, this chapter provides the challenges and the recent advances are briefly discussed and also suggest some future research directions in this area.