Explaining Blockchain...simply

Blockchain is going to change the world. This is not an overstatement.

If you've heard the word but aren't sure what it means, this is for you.

Blockchain is a fancy computer thing which lists the whereabouts and status of other things all around the world, and that list is shared with everyone. Let's use cars as an example.

A car is built in England and is registered on 'the blockchain'. When that car gets sold and is registered to a new owner the blockchain is updated with that data. When the car is sold again, the blockchain is updated, again.

Now let's imagine that the car gets into an accident and is sold to someone who exports it overseas. The car is now registered in France, let's say. Instead of that car receiving a completely new registration, the blockchain will simply update. As the blockchain for cars is available for everyone to see, buyers in France will be able to see the car has been in an accident and can act accordingly - as opposed to buying the car on trust.

Furthermore, because each element of the car has been added to the blockchain for engine blocks, and tyres, and steering wheels, and so on, any element of the car that is removed and sold on can be traced - via its respective blockchain.

But what of the person who sold the broken car to France, could he just not amend the blockchain to remove the accident data? Well, yes, he could, BUT, every change to the blockchain is recorded and visible to everyone. This means a potential buyer of the car would ask him why he changed the data in the system, and, would be able to see the data as it was before he changed it (kind of like the tracking of changes in a Word or Google Docs document).

The wonderful thing about blockchain is that it will act as a tamper-proof repository for government documentation, real estate contracts, money (Bitcoin as example), medical records, food production...absolutely everything.

Blockchain: It's not complicated, but it is very clever.

(P.S. I hope I got this right!)