The first and still most famous blockchain was designed in 2008 to support bitcoin, the digital cryptocurrency invented by a reclusive and very mysterious cyber-agent who has never appeared in public. At first, nobody thought much about blockchain as a tool with broad applications. It was just code that made bitcoin possible. But soon people began to realize the platform might support amazing innovations. There are many other blockchains now, for other currencies called altcoins, and also for fashion companies, Walmart, artists, the government of Dubai, collectors of cat images, protectors of endangered redwoods, derivatives traders, and others, with many more on the way. As many as we want to create.

As a group, all the blockchains are called distributed ledger technologies.

Several platforms dominate the blockchain space, including the one used for bitcoin. Hyperledger, a platform based on Linux code, is used by IBM’s enterprise blockchain team. It does not depend on coins, and the chains are often “closed” or confined to certain business teams, so they can maintain their privacy. Ethereum is another, and uses coins called ether. Ethereum is probably the “cooler” of these dominant platforms, although Hyperledger is favored by an abundance of more established businesses. There’s no reason these and other platforms can’t coexist. A consortium is now trying to set standards to allow the various platforms to communicate seamlessly. There’s a lot riding on working together.