Blockchain is an idea whose time has come. By which I mean it’s still mostly an idea, and is currently the only thing tech people want to talk about. But it’s in danger of getting hyped out of control, which in the end will damage it.
So what actually is a blockchain? Very broadly speaking, a blockchain is a way to store information. Boring, yet possibly revolutionary. A copy of every transaction between people is stored on a chronologically ordered, secure database, and identical copies of that database are hosted on multiple computers. New transactions can only be added once they have been verified by other computers, and it’s not possible to edit, change or delete old entries. It’s like a massive, public, tamperproof spreadsheet that everyone can view or add to but no-one is in charge of. It’s possibly revolutionary because it changes the way information is stored (multiple databases simultaneously), verified (by everyone) and controlled (records can be viewed, but not copied).
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