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Comment by r3trohack3r | Hacker News Reader

A blockchain is a chain of blocks.

Do you have another definition?

Colloquially, it often refers to a consensus algorithm paired with a chain of blocks.

Bitcoin’s innovation wasn’t a blockchain, it was a proof-of-work backed consensus algorithm that allowed a group of adversarial peers to agree on the state of a shared blockchain datastructure.

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According to the dictionary [1], a blockchain is "a digital database containing information (such as records of financial transactions) that can be simultaneously used and shared within a large decentralized, publicly accessible network"

The distinction here might be with a decentralized network.

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blockchain

Merriam is incorrect

Every word in that definition seems to fit, no?

"decentralized" isnt necessary to a block chain. However when people say "block chain" in everyday use, they're usually talking about that type. It's a case where the everyday use of a word is different to the actual technical meaning.

> It's a case where the everyday use of a word is different to the actual technical meaning.

Which can change.

There also is centralized proof-of-work blockchains. Clouds were offering them awhile back and IBM had some offering.

A blockchain used to be a chain of blocks. It's more now. You kinda defined it - consensus algoithm, shared datastructure.

What is colloquially even susposed to mean here? That the common usage doesn't match the definition? Maybe definitions change over time....

So a linked list is a blockchain?

If you have a chained hash of the data in the linked list, yes!

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