For Those Who Think Blockchain Is A One-Trick, Uninteresting Pony, Remember The Hyperlink

The quote above is one of the truest, most eloquent sentences I've ever read. The story of the Web really is the story of the Hyperlink. Without hyperlinks, the web would not be what it is and it would not be a many many multi-trillon dollar, end-all-be-all business center of the world. Now, maybe that's an oversimplification of it and maybe you could say the http or tcp/ip protocols are really what enabled the web and what the web is built off of, but the hyperlink is the eloquent implementation of that. We are connected by hyperlinks, hyperlinks create the interface we use for the vast majority of web traversal, and they have been made easy to implement based on the efforts of those that came before us. The Blockchain is no different; I've heard people say it is not a particularly interesting data structure. That is not the point. The point is what people can do with it. It isn't the data structure that matters, it is the utility.

1. Decentralization, Period - The Ability To Have A Trustless System, be it for financial transacting or any of the many other use cases it could be implemented for
2. Permanent Record Keeping - If the network is still up and has a large number of nodes, then the records remain permanent and unalterable (or at least, a record of alteration will remain)
3. Secure Transactions - Use Of Private Keys Are Far More Secure Than Traditional Pins
4. Transparency, If Implemented To Provide It - Full, Decentralized Transparency Of Records While Allowing For PERSONAL anonymity through the use of TOR in line with it's use.

Blockchain Tech is anything but 'not particularly interesting', whether the data structures used to create them are or not. The use cases are endless and just because it seems simple at first glance, it has started a revolution, the same way the hyperlink did. Blockchain Tech is here to stay and it will continue to grow and grow; it is a new subsection of the Web, and could very well become foundational for the web as time goes on! December 2017 was not the beginning of the end; it was a preview of things to come!