Is Blockchain the most important IT invention of our age?

Blockchain technology appeared first as the cryptographic engine that powered Bitcoin. In that case the ledger maintained a record of transactions in the currency to ensure that updated records of who owned which coins were maintained and publicly verified. But Bitcoin’s notoriety had the effect of distracting attention from the blockchain that underpinned it. So it took a while for the penny to drop (if you will pardon the numismatic metaphor) that the blockchain was far more important than Bitcoin. After all, a blockchain is essentially an incorruptible ledger of blocks of data, and that data can be records of just about anything.