The story
From block + chain, from earlier “block chain”. In the 2008 Bitcoin paper block and chain are used separately; the concept is referred to as “chain of hash-based proof-of-work” or “chain of digital signatures”.
First known use, by meaning
- from 2010s A shared record of past transactions in a distributed network, typically used for cryptocurrency.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.