A blockchain is a data structure that enables a digital ledger of transactions to be created and shared across a distributed network of computers. It uses cryptography to enable participants to securely record and verify transactions without relying on a central authority.
Although blockchain is best known as the technology underpinning Bitcoin, its potential extends far beyond cryptocurrencies. Here are some useful resources and emerging applications worth exploring.
IBM Blockchain Garage
IBM has joined the Hyperledger Project to help develop and improve blockchain technology for business.
Unlike public blockchains such as Bitcoin, which allow anonymous users to exchange cryptocurrencies, business blockchains can operate through permissioned networks. Participants have known identities, access is controlled, and no cryptocurrency is required.
The IBM Blockchain Garage helps organisations explore potential applications, develop prototypes and assess how blockchain could address real business challenges.
Skuchain
Skuchain is developing blockchain-based technology for global trade and supply-chain management.
Its vision of collaborative commerce would enable trading partners to interact more efficiently, gain greater visibility across their supply chains and make better forecasting and financing decisions.
As products move from manufacturers to distributors and consumers, important information about their origin, ownership and attributes can become disconnected from the physical item. Skuchain applies cryptographic principles originally developed for Bitcoin to create a secure and shared record of this information.
The company is developing next-generation identifiers using barcodes and RFID tags. These identifiers connect physical goods to records on a blockchain, helping organisations verify a product’s origin and follow its journey through the supply chain.
While many anti-counterfeiting systems rely on tamper-resistant labels or holograms, Skuchain aims to use the integrity of the blockchain ledger to provide cryptographic evidence of each item’s provenance.
Z/Yen and Distributed Futures
Z/Yen is a commercial think tank based in the City of London. Founded in 1994, it promotes societal progress through improvements in finance and technology.
In 2015, Z/Yen launched Distributed Futures, a senior forum dedicated to technologies with the potential to disrupt established industries. Its areas of interest include mutual distributed ledgers, also known as blockchain technology, and artificial intelligence.
One of its current projects is MetroGnomo, an experimental, open-source timestamping service based on Z/Yen’s ChainZy mutual distributed ledger technology.
MetroGnomo creates an authoritative and immutable record demonstrating that a piece of information existed, or that an event occurred, at a particular time. Impartial timestamps and unique identifiers could improve coordination, cooperation, integration and dispute resolution both within and between organisations.
Gemalto
Gemalto is an international digital security company that provides software applications, managed services, and secure personal devices, including smart cards and authentication tokens.
As the world’s largest manufacturer of SIM cards, Gemalto is particularly relevant to discussions about digital identity, authentication and the secure connection between physical devices and blockchain networks.
Hyperledger London Meetup
The Hyperledger London Meetup is a useful community for anyone interested in following developments in distributed ledger technology and staying up to date with emerging market trends.
Further reading
Altoros provides an interesting overview of the requirements for wider blockchain adoption and the role prototypes can play in turning blockchain concepts into practical business applications:
Blockchain Adoption: Industry Requirements and the Role of Prototypes
Data With Purpose 
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