Confusion surrounding blockchain

Blockchain has taken the world by storm. It's in the news daily with what seems like non-stop conflicting opinions. Some calling it all hype and dooming blockchain to fail. With others claiming it will solve almost every conceivable world problem. Among all the noise, there still seems to be confusion about how to define what blockchain really is.

If you Google “what is blockchain”, this is where things get even more muddied.  Here are three contrasting definitions by Gartner, IBM and Wiki.

Gartner: A blockchain is an expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable transactional records shared by all participants in a network. Each record contains a time stamp and reference links to previous transactions. With this information, anyone with access rights can trace back a transactional event, at any point in its history, belonging to any participant. A blockchain is one architectural design of the broader concept of distributed ledgers.

https://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/blockchain/

IBM: Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger for recording the history of transactions. It fosters a new generation of transactional applications that establish trust, accountability and transparency—from contracts to deeds to payments.

https://www.ibm.com/blockchain

Wiki: Blockchain is a decentralized, distributed and public digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers so that the record cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and the consensus of the network.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain

All three definitions are different.  Wiki’s description has blockchain is a decentralized, public, distributed ledger.  Gartner defines blockchain as a type of distributed ledger with no mention of public or decentralized.  IBM just says blockchain is shared, immutable ledger. It's no wonder there is confusion.

It is important to understand the differences here. If you are analysing a blockchain solution, you should first define what blockchain means to you. Here is a brief history of how blockchain first started.

In 2008, the world was in the middle of a financial crash – which included the usual banks / governments ruining trust with just about everybody. This was when Satoshi Nakamoto began thinking about creating Bitcoin (a decentralized currency that banks / governments couldn’t manipulate and control) – the technology Satoshi invented to accomplish this was blockchain.  The main ideas surrounding blockchain are the following: decentralized, distributed and public digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers (nodes) so that the record cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and the consensus of the network.   

One of the key mechanisms Satoshi used was “decentralization”. With thousands of nodes not controlled by a single entity managing the blockchain network, no one party could manipulate the data.   No central government could decide one day – hey, lets print money and do some quantitative easing – therefor crashing the currency.

Satoshi's definition is often what is used to describe blockchain. Yet, its not how many others define it. If blockchain to you means public, decentralised & distributed ledger technology then that will lead you to a platform that is true to that definition (IE Ethereum). Or maybe blockchain means only the distributed ledger technology (IE Hyperledger) to you. Either way, its worth consider now before deciding which direction to go in.