Blockchains are necessary for Bitcoin, but Bitcoin is not necessary for blockchains.<p>&quot;The Blockchain&quot; (big B) is the original blockchain (small b) used for Bitcoin, but it&#x27;s only one possible implementation. It&#x27;s like saying Postgres, MySQL, etc. aren&#x27;t &#x27;true&#x27; SQL databases only Codd&#x27;s original implementation is -- now, obviously the metaphor doesn&#x27;t quite hold because of the distributed nature of blockchains, but it&#x27;s disingenuous to say that there&#x27;s only one canonical implementation of a technology.<p>The Blockchain and Bitcoin are valuable proof-of-concept implementations of blockchains, but there&#x27;s value to be gained from separating the general ideas from specific instances.