I didn't really follow the blockchain thing - but now I'm curious - is blockchain (as tech) essentially money with built-in metadata? The whole 'proof-of-work'

I didn't really follow the blockchain thing - but now I'm curious - is blockchain (as tech) essentially money with built-in metadata? The whole 'proof-of-work' thing seemed a bit potlatch to me, but building publicly-accessable metadata into money seems like an interesting (although possibly scary) idea.