Abstract:Originated as Internet financial technology, blockchain is prevailing in many application scenarios and attracting attentions from both academia and industry. Typical blockchain systems are characterized with decentralization, trustworthiness, openness, autonomy, anonymity, and immutability, which brings trustworthiness for data management and value exchange in distributed computation environment without centralized trust authority. However, blockchain is still developing as a continuously evolving new technique. Its mechanisms, peripheral facilities, and user maturity in security are yet to be optimized, resulting in various security threats and frequent security incidents. This paper first overviews the blockchain technology and its potential security vulnerabilities when being used for token transaction and exchange. Then the mostly-seen security problems are enumerated and analyzed with Bitcoin and Ethereum as two sample systems. The security problems encountered by blockchain peripheral facilities and users are presented, and their root causes are probed. Finally, the surveyed problems are categorized and the possible countermeasures or defenses are proposed to address them. Promising research areas and technology evolving directions are briefly covered for the future.