Trail of Bits has released an operational risk assessment report on blockchain technology. As more businesses consider the innovative advantages of blockchains and, more generally, distributed ledger technologies (DLT), executives must decide whether and how to adopt them. Organizations adopting these systems must understand and mitigate the risks associated with operating a blockchain service organization, managing wallets and encryption keys, relying on external providers of APIs, and many other related topics. This report is intended to provide decision-makers with the context necessary to assess these risks and plan to mitigate them. In the report, we cover the current state, use cases, and deficiencies of blockchains. We survey the common pitfalls, failures, and vulnerabilities that we’ve observed as leaders in the field of blockchain assessment, security tooling, and formal verification. Blockchains have significantly different constraints, security properties, and resource requirements than traditional data storage alternatives.
Full story : Managing risk in blockchain deployments.