title: Is blockchain a decentralised database?
body: <p>I understand bitcoin uses blockchain technology to maintain a decentralised ledger of all transactions. I have also read many posts eluding to future applications of blockchain technology, none of which have been very clear to me.</p>
  <p>Is blockchain technology simply a decentralised database with consensus validation of the data? If this was the case surely the db would grow to be too large to be effectively decentralised?</p>
  <p>To help me understand, can anyone point me to a clear example of a non-bitcoin blockchain application?</p>