The summary article published a couple of weeks ago at O’Reilly focuses on the key concepts behind the blockchain technology (that is well-known from the crypto-currency Bitcoin) and explains four future areas of application of the technology in a more decentralized world:

• Currencies – Exchanges, wallets, currencies mining, payment processing
• Pegged services – Web services using the value store principle embedded into blockchain technology
• Smart contracts – Manage and validate movement of assets or values
• Decentralized autonomous organizations

Find out more at: http://radar.oreilly.com/2015/01/understanding-the-blockchain.html