Can a 10-year-old idea be an emerging technology? In 2008, someone under the name Satoshi Nakamoto wrote a white paper that described a peer-to-peer version of electronic cash known as bitcoin. For this new-age currency to work, it needed a system of trust. Hence, blockchain was born.  

While bitcoin has at times mystified and outraged the public, blockchain has steadily grown in popularity thanks to its unique form of transparency — sometimes referred to as a decentralized ledger — that uses time stamps to securely record transactions between two parties without the need for third-party authorization.