1) Innovation of bitcoin is proof of work, not a chain of blocks.
2) credit crunch for unicorns is troubling. we should all be worried about where this can lead.
Proof of work was invented in the late 90s by Adam Back. The consensus algorithm using proof of work and a blockchain is what Bitcoin brought to the world.
Wikipedia disagrees:
> The concept may have been first presented by Cynthia Dwork and Moni Naor in a 1993 journal article.
Adam Back invented hash cash as one form of POW.