Introduction Spectre and Meltdown are arguably the worst hardware security vulnerabilities present in modern day CPUs and between them, affect nearly every device produced in the last 20 years. Both vulnerabilities were discovered in 2018 and exploit the advanced features of modern CPUs to access data that is usually restricted.

Abstract – After providing an overview of blockchain technology and its applications, security considerations are discussed and a critical evaluation is provided. Keywords – Blockchain, Smart Contracts, Security, Cryptocurrency. 1. Introduction In its purest form, a blockchain is a distributed and verifiable database where all participants of the chain can be sure