Why use a blockchain system?

The main advantage of a blockchain system over a conventional database is its ability to facilitate updates from multiple, mutually distrusting participants without the need for a centralized gatekeeper that all parties must implicitly trust. Since the consensus mechanism requires these entities to validate that the constraints of the system are met before any changes to the state of the system are allowed, users can rely on the integrity of the state of the system at any time. Moreover, because blockchain systems typically involve replication (enabling each participant to validate separate copies of the state and changes), users benefit from increased availability and resilience.