"Distributed block chains" have been well understood (if not popular) technology for a long time and have not really been that popular. They've been cost-prohib

"Distributed block chains" have been well understood (if not popular) technology for a long time and have not really been that popular. They've been cost-prohibitive until recently. I'm not sure they will fundamentally change anything either. You're making the same implicit assumption that there is an appetite in the market for a wide but not-quite-real-time distribution mechanism. I submit to you that outside of medical records and other specialist applications, there isn't. As for the currencies, when they are backed by the promise of more energy as opposed to backed by the promise of spent energy I'll find that more interesting. I see the big weakness of Bitcoin being that it exists as it does only so long as the majority of computing power within it does not hijack it.