First thing first, what is the original definition of a “Blockchain”?

This terms was initially conceptualized by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 when he introduced Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer digital cash system that successfully achieved double-spending prevention solution.

The term used to describe a unique data structure where each data object is linked to the previous one and that one to the one before it, hence the ‘chain’. This unique structure is only a glimpse from the whole technological solution Satoshi crafted into Bitcoin.

Later on, the term got coined to generally describe the whole technical combination/stack that assembles into a unique platform of a network.

So, the common spread consensus is to regard the term “Blockchain” as to the whole technical stack, not only the actual linked data blocks.

For instance, BTC (Bitcoin) and BCH (BitcoinCash), the 2 famous forks of the original Bitcoin, are fundamentally the same “Blockchain” from technical perspective, although the represents completely different digital assets.

[To be more specific BTC is the original chain, BCH is a fork out of it. From the moment the fork happened, both project also progressed in different directions from development perspective, so they were technologically identical until certain point in time].

Today there is a huge amount of “Blockchain” variations, each attempts to solve different problem from different perspective. Some are empty as an inflated ballon full of empty decelerations.

So the best way to break down the term in order to better understand it is to reference to the original one, Bitcoin.