A fundamental difference in how data is handled and stored means the technologies are complimentary, not competitors.
blockchain hype is out of control. Although blockchain is an amazing technology that makes data ecosystems safer, more trusted, and verifiable, it is not a panacea. The blockchain hype includes one false claim in particular, which is that because blockchains can serve as verifiable systems of records, databases are no longer the right technology to serve that purpose. This is misguided. Blockchains and databases are different kinds of systems of record and, in fact, are complimentary.
There are many different blockchain technologies and networks, and they all share a basic characteristic: a record of "transaction" is not stored in just one database. Instead, a consensus of the transaction is recorded amongst an entire network of participants in an ecosystem.
Blockchain is an immutable, distributed record of transactions. It uses cryptographic algorithms to reach a consensus amongst a group of parties in a secure way, resulting in every party in the chain of transactions having an accurate record of every transaction. There is no central repository secured by a single party that may be enticed to alter the database for its own interest. The blockchain is trustworthy by virtue of its distributed model, how blocks are linked to the chain, and its consensus algorithm that makes the cost of altering it prohibitive.
Blockchains are computationally expensive. By design, the cryptographic algorithms used to derive a consensus require substantial work. As a result, there are many efforts focused on reducing the computational expense, the corresponding cryptocurrency expense, and the power expense. One approach, called anchoring, reduces the amount of data stored on the chain where transactions are batched together, hashed, and organized into timestamped blocks for inclusion into the blockchain. A receipt indicating where on the blockchain the data was anchored is then stored in databases or other durable storage, making any transaction verifiable.
