Opening paragraph from the blockchain section of my paper on clinical decision support systems:
"At the highest level, blockchain is a peer-to-peer internet protocol and technology that allows two parties to exchange (transact) without trusting each other, and by extension, without requiring a third party to validate, witness, or secure the transaction. Established in 2009 by Satoshi Nakomoto, this technology is now being explored by the likes of IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, Linux Foundation, PwC, UBS, the Bank of Canada , and many others. It is considered to be a piece of the 4th industrial revolution, along with IoT, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and others. The implications in healthcare alone are massive, ranging from health record sharing to streamlining clinical trial logistics."