As far as I can tell, this is indeed all 'empty hype chasing' on the part of the founders, but the people who actually believe in it probably end up trusting in

As far as I can tell, this is indeed all 'empty hype chasing' on the part of the founders, but the people who actually believe in it probably end up trusting in a central authority - which means a database would have sufficed. Still, it's amazing how many people are willing to shell out money for this - many of them are likely trying to sell their acquisitions to the next sucker, though.