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I've spent a decent amount of time understanding blockchain at this point. Am I wrong in saying that it's really just a data structure for solving a problem (like a tree or array), but a lot of the hype seems to be people trying to find commercial applications to use the specific data structure? I mean, no one says 'lets go find a good use for an array,' you sort of pick the array after you have an idea

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It's an approach to solving a problem that allows problems to be solved in totally new ways. I think it's understandable to be on a search for opportunities to apply it.

The problem it seems to me is that, although the idea of trustless systems seem really cool and applicable to a lot of domains, it turns out that there are actually way fewer useful applications than people originally thought. But no one is letting go, and a lot of people are wrongly convincing themselves and others that most systems are better off trustless.

Yes the blockchain is just a data structure. A fancy tree. The more interesting part of cryptocurrencies are the dynamic membership multiparty signature schemes they implement, but those don't make for as nice of soundbites.

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