This document presents blockchain technology in detail and extensively studies its aspects relevant to IT security. It also assesses to what extent blockchain technology is able to achieve the security properties ascribed to it and how it may be evaluated within the current legal framework.
This document thus supports developers and potential users of blockchain solutions in performing a well-founded assessment of risks and in taking IT security into account from the start. Furthermore, the dynamic development of blockchain technology offers the possibility of using the results of this analysis as a basis for future discussions on both the national and international level. With blockchain—as with other topics in IT security—the BSI thus strives to shape information security for government, business and society.