1. Understanding the difference between a blockchain app and a traditional app; the concept of decentralised architecture; future visions of entirely autonomous machine-to-machine transactions conducted via smart contracts; current reality fails to live up to the hype; the technology of the future

Rhian Lewis is a contract test automation specialist, who has worked on projects for some of Europe's largest financial, leisure and automotive brands. She is also the co-developer of the cryptocurrency portfolio tracker countmycrypto.com and a co-founder of award-winning blockchain startup Mamoru.io. She works as an independent blockchain consultant and runs the London Women in Bitcoin Meetup group, as well as writing about blockchain tech for Coin Telegraph and elsewhere. She was named as one of the CoinFilter Top 40 Women in Bitcoin, and last year made it into the Richtopia list of Top 100 Fintech Influencers.

Blockchain technology – the architecture that underpins Bitcoin – is set to revolutionise the world in the same way as the internet. With corporations such as Deloitte, HSBC, Goldman Sachs and even central banks investigating its possibilities, and with Blockchain As A Service (BAAS) now available on Microsoft Azure, IBM Bluemix and AWS, everyone currently working in tech should understand the basics. So, what exactly does a blockchain application look like? How might it look or behave differently from a traditional application? And how does one go about testing different types of blockchain app? This technology has been widely touted as the future of the new machine economy, with endless use cases related to the Internet of Things as well as more predictable applications, such as in banking and finance. Does the reality justify the hype?