Blockchains are not useful as a technology (unless you want to make a censorship resistant, decentralised money such as bitcoin). In tonight’s Australian Federal Budget for 2018-2019, we see this gem (Budget Paper 2 p.166):

What a waste of $700k. Anything that could have been done with a blockchain, probably could have been done even cheaper without a blockchain, instead using standard database & backup technology.

I saw this tweet earlier today and thought it was very relevant:

I have an idea for a data structure, hear me out.

A linked list where every node contains a hash of all the data in the nodes behind it, and every time you want to add a new node, you need about 200.000 other computers to say ok and consume the power equivalent of a small nation

— Ólafur Waage (@olafurw) May 6, 2018

This tweet was funny:

@davidgerard @Tr0llyTr0llFace @prestonjbyrne pic.twitter.com/C7M2kZxb0A

— Oguz Serdar (@OguzSerdar) May 8, 2018

You know what would be a better investment of $700k? Buying bitcoin. For a more in depth explanation behind why blockchain doesn’t make sense other than in the specific context of bitcoin, see this article.