The blockchain is an electronic accounting ledger. It uses some clever encryption technology to make it very hard for transactions on the ledger to be forged or

The blockchain is an electronic accounting ledger. It uses some clever encryption technology to make it very hard for transactions on the ledger to be forged or changed. Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, are electronic coupons that can be bought, sold and exchanged on the electronic ledger. The reason you've heard of Bitcoin is that it's been somewhat of a fad recently and the coupons have been changing hands for thousands of dollars. For background, Bitcoin was invented as a political experiment to design a currency that wasn't controlled by any government or bank. In order to make this work, the blockchain has some interesting features that allow it to be used without having a central authority to manage the ledger. One of the unfortunate things about Bitcoin is that people often conflate the technical parts, the political parts and the financial parts. This can make discussions about it very confusing indeed.