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Blockchain technology has come a long way since the initial vision published by Satoshi Nakamoto in the Bitcoin white paper in 2008. Buzz words like “bitcoin”, “blockchain”, and “cryptocurrency” are everywhere. Companies and governments have started to use blockchain technology in earnest and will increasingly do so for the foreseeable future.

Since its initial conception, blockchain has encompassed both a social promise and new technology. Originally proposed as a solution for Bitcoin’s cryptocurrency record-keeping system, blockchains are now used to store the records of all types of applications.

Core services you may depend on every day such as the transfer of money, payments, voting, land records, IP rights, and identity all rely on intermediaries. Blockchain software has begun taking the place of these antiquated systems. The software becomes the trusted record-keeping systems, and the rules programed into the software become the intermediaries.

It is important to note that blockchains can be used for more than just recording the transfer of value between two parties. The primary benefits of cryptographic identity, historical and chronological provenance, and the transparency of the networks complete history work exceptionally well for many industries that require two parties to trust each other.

Pigeonholing blockchain technology solely for financial transactions is a very limited perspective. Before you can fully grasp the potential applications of blockchains as part of a technology stack, it’s important to understand how the technology works. In the following section you will learn about the key concepts that make blockchain technology revolutionary.