The idea of strapping on blockchain semantics onto traditional databases, distributes or otherwise has been around for quite a long time. Openchain is one such

The idea of strapping on blockchain semantics onto traditional databases, distributes or otherwise has been around for quite a long time. Openchain is one such example. So we end up with a system of clients connecting to some distributed store and able to do a ton of tps, but without the ability to independantly verify transaction history. It is a completely different security problem then the public digital currency networks. There are also assertions in the paper about Bitcoin and the network that are wrong. It's not a broadcast network, it's a peer-to-peer gossip network, there is a huge difference in terms of propagation and scale.