Unblocked

Chapter 3. WHAT IS A BLOCKCHAIN?

So basically, this is just a safe, secure way to exchange pretty much anything of value on the internet with someone you don’t know.

Beth, my yoga instructor, after I explained blockchains

Beth Is Correct

Looking to understand the technology behind blockchains is a little like asking for an explanation of what makes the internet work. While I believe more technical knowledge is always better, this doesn’t make your average executive better at using it to deliver business value. And blockchains are complex. In a recent New York Times article, journalist and author Nathaniel Popper wrote, “If you ask even the people who work with blockchains to define the technology, you are likely to get a stuttering response.”²⁰ In his book Radical Technologies, the urban designer Adam Greenfield calls blockchains the first technology that’s “just fundamentally difficult for otherwise intelligent and highly capable people to understand.”²¹

But with press coverage of cryptocurrency’s sensational ascent, blockchains have received more curiosity and engagement than most early technologies. There is a craving to understand—and explain to others—what this thing is. It serves, thus, to have some working knowledge. What follows on these next few pages is a basic explanation to ground you before we return to the main business at hand: to help you understand why blockchains matter.ⁱ

Before we dive in, a caveat: I must note that many components of blockchain technology ...