Is there a better way to build a blockchain? Yes.
A Particle Chain is a single plain text document of particles encoded in Particle Syntax with new transactions at the top of the document and an ID generated from the hash of the previous transaction.
Particle Chain is a syntax-free storage format for the base layer of a blockchain to increase trust among non-expert users without sacrificing one iota of capabilities. A Particle Chain can be grokked by >10x as many people, thus leading to an order of magnitude increase in trust and developers on a chain.
RPM
RPM states that R, the reliability of a chain, is the number of particles P times the number of independent mirrors of the chain M.
Chains that are mirrored more with more history are more reliable.
Implementing
The chain itself is encoded in Particles (Particle Syntax) which could be done with pen and paper, though for more utility it is recommended to build a digital Particle Chain 😉.
For implementing a digital Particle Chain, the Parsers Programming Language (or a similar compiler compiler and virtual machine) may be used.
All existing chains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and NEAR could be converted to a Particle Chain in a straightforward manner.
New chains would likely want to build on a Particle Chain from the start.