Blockchains are all the rage. The oldest and biggest blockchain of them all is Bitcoin, which over its eight-year history so far starshipped in value from 10,000 bitcoins per pizza (before there were exchanges that priced bitcoin in traditional currencies) to over $1,000 per bitcoin. As of this writing Bitcoin has a market capitalization of over $16 billion. Running non-stop for eight years, with almost no financial loss on the chain itself, it is now in important ways the most reliable and secure financial network in the world.