I keep running into the same mistake when looking at data: two things happen together, so one must be causing the other. It's a natural assumption, and it's often wrong.

I've spent the last two posts explaining what blockchain is and how it works technically. The natural question is: what can you actually do with it?

In my last post, I covered what a blockchain is conceptually: a distributed ledger that enables trust without a central authority. Now I want to dig into how it actually works. Understanding the mechanics helps explain why the system is hard to cheat.

I've been digging into blockchain lately, trying to get past the hype and understand what the technology actually does. The term gets thrown around a lot, usually in the same breath as cryptocurrency, but the underlying system is worth understanding on its own.