A blockchain is "just" a fancy hash chain, or a hash chain with rules. Take your pick. Blockchains provide a cryptographic ordering of events, or cryptographic

A blockchain is "just" a fancy hash chain, or a hash chain with rules. Take your pick. Blockchains provide a cryptographic ordering of events, or cryptographically agreed upon state, which is a useful property. It's certainly not as world-changing as a lot of blockchain-enthusiast-cryptocurrency-bros think, but it's not "only useful for censorship-resistant money." Which is why I think it's a shame that blockchain has become synonymous with proof of work cryptocurrency scams.