Is Bitcoin more important than the Blockchain?

So a few days ago #Bitcoin broke the $10k mark and it seems that the march of the #Cryptocurrency is unstoppable. Some even predict it to break the $100k ceiling in the near future. This is the stuff of history and in the heady days ahead we are at risk of forgetting the most important thing about the #Bitcoin. That thing is the #Blockchain. What is the Blockchain and why is it (in my humble opinion) more important than its offspring the Bitcoin?

The Blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.

At its core, the Blockchain is a technology that permanently records transactions in a way that cannot be later erased but can only be sequentially updated, in essence keeping a never-ending historical trail.

How is a block created? It is created upon the initiation of a transaction. The block is linked to previous blocks by including a security hash thus creating a chain. Mining is the process which checks the validity of the blocks in the chain. A successful transaction occurs when the block is validated as an honest part of the chain.

True Blockchains have at least four elements listed as follows. The first is the ledger which contains permanent records of transactions. Second is a token or crypto-currency that rewards miners also known as stakers for securing the ledger. The third element is the Network Protocol used to transmit the tokens and finally an open source software used to govern the above.

Now let's step back abit and imagine how many industries can benefit from BlockChain Technology. 

(Image below courtesy of https://www.slideshare.net/RedChip/btcs-201507)

By all means let's not ignore #Bitcoin. Heck! Who CAN ignore one of the fastest creations of wealth the world has ever seen..what's to ignore? However that very volatility may be the undoing of the cryptocurrency. Some may even equate it with Financial Russian a Roulette. But when the dust settles irrespective of what value Bitcoin will have the BlockChain will remain. Solid and ready to change our very lives. Like the Internet did. 

For better or worse. 

Here's some extra reading for you.

The KICTANet Blockchain Policy Brief