Cryptomania is dominating conversations from Silicon Valley to Wall Street. But ‘cryptocurrency’ is only one implementation of the underlying technology innovation that has the ability to transform the way future technology products are designed and built. Of course, that technology is blockchain, the decentralized digital ledger that makes Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies possible.

First, we need to establish a common framework for the underpinnings of the technology. Its foundational element, the block, is a chunk of data that is packaged securely and then saved with a cryptographically secure reference to a previous block. Every block becomes part of a chain, and there is no mechanism for editing or deleting blocks once they are added.