Hi! I've been working on blockchain tech professionally since mid 2013, and been writing software since the 80s. I'm CTO of BigchainDB. Here's how I see things

Hi! I've been working on blockchain tech professionally since mid 2013, and been writing software since the 80s. I'm CTO of BigchainDB. Here's how I see things. Blockchains are distributed databases (e.g. MongoDB) with three new characteristics: decentralized (no single entity owns or controls), immutable (tamper-resistant), and assets (you own the asset if you have the private key). Each new characteristic of blockchain tech leads to business benefits. "Decentralized" helps organizations share resources; e.g. music labels sharing a database of who-wrote-what. "Immutable" gives better audit trails; e.g. to see history of ownership of art. "Assets" can now live on the data store itself, which enables decentralized exchanges and more. Details: https://blog.bigchaindb.com/three-blockchain-benefits-ae3a2a5ab102#.k5wi3ccyv https://blog.bigchaindb.com/three-blockchain-benefits-ae3a2a... Let's use this as a basis to answer the question... You can use blockchain tech in your existing centralized stacks. E.g. it would run side-by-side with your instances of Postgres, MongoDB, etc. Typically the blockchain would incorporated as a database-as-a-service. This would make the stack partly-decentralized. Or you can go for a fully-decentralized stack. You'd have decentralized file systems (e.g. IPFS), decentralized processing aka "smart contracts" (e.g. Ethereum), and decentralized database (e.g. BigchainDB).