Comment by Nextgrid

> But, the ability to prove the provenance and ownership of any asset, whether physical or digital, has value.

This only works for assets which themselves exist on the blockchain and for whom the blockchain is the only source of truth - such as cryptocurrencies.

Anything else that involves off-chain activity would require a bulletproof way of keeping the on-chain and off-chain state in sync which is typically a neutral, trusted party, at which point you may as well just let them operate a conventional database and forget the whole blockchain bullshit.

> In a world where so much has been made of fake news, imagine if you could know with absolute certainty that a given quote you read from someone in an article is authentic and given to the specific outlet you are reading it at, not taken from somewhere else, perhaps out of context. Imagine if Google integrated such information/quote verification into its search results, and could use it to prioritize sites with real quotes or information. SERPs wouldn’t be full of trash, and small sites that manage to scoop large ones could get instant #1 rankings. Authenticity verification has value.

I don't see how blockchain/cryptocurrencies help here? Cryptographic signing is all you need.