Establishing authenticity - "single sources of truth" is a really important concept in the real world and in the world of computing. From title deeds, to contracts, to laws and currencies, we have evolved ways of establishing single sources of truth over many centuries of trial and error.
Knowingly or not, many of the ways of solving the problem rely on the properties of physical objects: clay tablets (Code of Hammurabi), Bronze Plates (The Twelve Tables of Rome), Goat Skin (Celtic Brehon Laws). Typically, this physicality is mixed in with a bit of trust. Trust in institutions. Trust in tamper evidence. Trust in probabilities.
Taken together: the physical scheme aspect, plus the trust aspect, allows the establishment of consensus. It is consensus, at the end of the day, that makes all this stuff work in the world of human affairs. Simply put, if enough of us behave as though X is the authentic deed/deposition/derogation/dollar then X is, ipso facto, for all practical purposes, the real deal.
In the world of digital data, consensus is really tricky because trust becomes really tricky. Take away the physicality of objects and establishing trust in the truth/authenticity of digital objects is hard.
Some folk say that blockchain is slow and inefficient and they are right - if you are comparing it to today's consensus as to what a "database" is.
Blockchain is the way it is because it is trying to solve the trust problem. A big part of that is what is called Byzantine Consensus. Basically how to establish consensus when all sorts of things can go wrong, ranging from honest errors to sabotage attempts.
The problem is hard and also very interesting and important in my opinion. Unfortunately today, many folks see the word "database" associated with blockchain and all they see is the incredible inefficiency and cost per "transaction" compared to, say, a relational database with ACID properties.
Yes, blockchain is a truly dreadful "database" - if your metric for evaluation is the same as the use cases for relational databases.
Blockchain is not designed to be one of those. Blockchain is the way it is because byzantine consensus is hard. Is it perfect? Of course not but a proper evaluation of it requires looking at the problems it is trying to solve. Doing so, requires getting past common associations most people carry around in their heads about what a "database" is and how it should behave/perform.
Given the unfortunate fact that the word "database" has become somewhat synonymous with the term "relational database", I find it amusing that Blockchain has itself become a byzantine consensus problem. Namely, establishing consensus about what words like "database" and "transaction" and "trust" really mean.