In late April, blockchain evangelist Blythe Masters told a crowd in the London Docklands that banks could solve many of their problems if they embraced the transaction-processing technology.

The former JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive could also have been talking about SWIFT, which hosted the conference. The messaging system for transfers between banks was facing a crisis that had been bubbling under the surface for months. Hackers have exploited the SWIFT system to steal US$81 million from Bangladesh's central bank, and may have infiltrated as many as 12 banks.

The blockchain technology Masters was talking about is a distributed, encrypted system of transferring money. It's the architecture behind bitcoin and is seen as the truly transformative aspect of the digital asset. While it doesn't offer protection against stolen credentials, blockchain is probably a better-defended record than existing systems.