What the Heck is the Blockchain?
No, it's not a chain that stretches around your block. It is
a peer-to-peer managed, publicly readable and secure database,
chunks of which are located in multiple places. Each
"place" (or node) is an isolated and independent computer
on a network. Each computer is equipped with special software for
management of the blockchain. The blockchain database itself
contains an ever-expanding list of verified transaction data. Think
of a blockchain as a bullet-proof record of proven transactions
that everybody (with the appropriate software) can check.
The first blockchain was developed to record bitcoin
transactions in a publicly accessible way, and that bitcoin
blockchain is the archetype for this technology. However,
blockchains could be used for all kinds of purposes –
recording financial transactions, enabling digital rights
management for movies and music, replacing letters of credit or
transactions done with letters of credit,
