What's trending in blockchain technology and its potential uses in libraries

Blockchain is a relatively new technology used to verify and store transaction records for online cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Beyond online currencies, the blockchain has potential uses in health care, education and many other fields. Blockchain is described by many people, but in essence is a type of distributed ledger for maintaining a permanent and tamper-proof record of transactional data. A blockchain functions as a decentralized database that is managed by computers belonging to a peer-to-peer (P2P) network (www.bohyunkim.net/blog/archives/3967#.XV6ysehKjIU). Each of the computers in the distributed network maintains a copy of the ledger to prevent a single point of...