"Blockchain" is basically just the process of doing a long math problem with distributed computing and showing your work. Bitcoin does not rely on new breakthr

"Blockchain" is basically just the process of doing a long math problem with distributed computing and showing your work. Bitcoin does not rely on new breakthroughs in any science. The thing that's revolutionary about it is the idea of a people's currency, not the technologies used. The technologies that make that possible are all quite old. Bitcoin's "blockchain" is not even the most efficient way to solve a given problem. It is intentionally inefficient by a variable factor (difficulty) to provide economic stability. After Bitcoin's rise, a lot of people in banking wanted to believe that there is some magic element of Bitcoin that makes it technologically better than what they offer, because that would mean they could use that technology to create their own Bitcoin. But there isn't. People use it precisely because it allows them to store and exchange wealth outside of banks and nation states. The tech is irrelevant.