To me it seems that every alleged application of blockchain technology can be done by having a trusted organization maintaining a reliable database.<p>Am I missing something?
Blockchain is in the open so you don't have to trust one organization. Multiple organizations watch each other. And one organization might quit anytime.<p>You're right that many blockchain projects are based on one organization, let's say that Porsche project, and they could use a distributed database instead.<p><a href="https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/themes/porsche-digital/porsche-blockchain-panamera-xain-technology-app-bitcoin-ethereum-data-smart-contracts-porsche-innovation-contest-14906.html" rel="nofollow">https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/themes/porsche-digital/porsc...</a><p>"All activities are documented in the blockchain, making deletions transparent." Sure, but Porsche is the only provider of data (writes) and can change the rules. I don't see how others are writing in the same blockchain.
Nope - you're 100% correct. The "problems" blockchain solves are exactly those two requirements you've identified.<p>Blockchain tech allows for a distributed and trustless version of whatever you'd otherwise do with a reliable centralised database operated by a trusted party.
a. The problem of easily raising money from VCs.<p>b. The problem of being able to sell your solution while having a shockingly low transaction per second.
> To me it seems that every alleged application of blockchain technology can be done by having a trusted organization maintaining a reliable database.<p>Congratulations, you have just discovered that every application of
a <i>decentralized</i> service can be implemented with an appropriate <i>centralized</i>
service without changing much of the protocol running on top of that service.
You do know that this is an <i>obvious</i> result, right?<p>Blockchain is the first cryptographic protocol for document timestamping that
<i>does not need</i> the trusted third party to run. This alone is a significant
technical success.