Blockchain as Google Docs

Picture a spreadsheet that is duplicated thousands of times across a network of computers.
Then imagine that this network is designed to regularly update this spreadsheet and you have a basic understanding of the blockchain.
Information held on a blockchain exists as a shared and continually reconciled database.
This is a way of using the network that has obvious benefits.
The blockchain database isn’t stored in any single location, meaning the records it keeps are truly public and easily verifiable.
No centralized version of this information exists for a hacker to corrupt.
Hosted by millions of computers simultaneously, its data is accessible to anyone on the internet.

The traditional way of sharing documents with collaboration is to send a Microsoft Word document to another recipient, and ask them to make revisions to it.
The problem with that scenario is that you need to wait until receiving a return copy before you can see or make other changes because you are locked out of editing it until the other person is done with it. That’s how databases work today. Two owners can’t be messing with the same record at once.
That’s how banks maintain money balances and transfers; they briefly lock access (or decrease the balance) while they make a transfer, then update the other side, then re-open access (or update again).With Google Docs (or Google Sheets), both parties have access to the same document at the same time, and the single version of that document is always visible to both of them. It is like a shared ledger, but it is a shared document. The distributed part comes into play when sharing involves a number of people.