Hey, non-trolling question.
Did that blockchain thing ever work out?
Honest question. Like, it had massive hype and massive potential, and I still think it's significant tech.
But what are some major apps that have been built on it?
Not currencies, but platforms.
Conversation
CT logs are trusted parties, not distributed ledgers with a consensus mechanism. The way you're interpreting the definition renders it nearly meaningless and is something which already existed in widespread usage. CT logs are no more of a blockchain than a Git repository.
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SCTs also make them even more of a trusted party than a Git repository. Compare SCTs to OpenTimestamps. CT is just a notary system with trusted third parties. Blocks containing a hash of the previous block is just one property of a blockchain and was widely used before Bitcoin.
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Decentralization with a consensus mechanism rather than centralized trust is a core part of it. Blockchain is a generic term for the combination of technologies invented for Bitcoin (i.e. a decentralized, permissionless distributed ledger). A Merkle tree is just one part of it.
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Merkle trees are broadly used for many things including version control, integrity verification, file transfer, etc.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkle_tr
Blockchain combines this with a consensus mechanism like proof-of-work/proof-of-stake to make a distributed, decentralized ledger.