Recently I've been seeing a number of really smart people and established companies claiming blockchain is going to be ubiquitous and revolutionise a large number of different industries. However, outside the case of cryptocurrencies I'm not sure what applications the blockchain has or why myself as a developer would want to start using this revolutionary technology.

I understand why in the example of cryptocurrency the blockchain is used. However why companies like Facebook or Microsoft would want to use blockchains for things is beyond me. It also confuses me why if the blockchain is as revolutionary as people say that it's only just started to get attention. Bitcoin has been around for quite a while, and has been well known in tech circles for a long time now.

If my comments here seem critical it's not because I have any opposition to using the blockchain, but simply that I'm confused and desperately trying to understand what I'm missing here. I genuinely don't understand why or how this technology is going to become ubiquitous or revolutionise much of anything - which concerns me given the track record of some of its advocates.