We have come along way in the crypto world. Coins are now internationally used and have the functionality of money. But back in the day, when the technology was created, it was only within a closed system. The first example is in the game Super Mario Bros. Originally it was not supposed to be a game but a tech demo to showcase the power of the blockchain. But when they saw the coins could not be taken off of the system and the system reset each time, they decided to make a fun game out of it that could spread the word of the blockchain.
The blocks is super Mario are the original blocks in the blockchain. You can put things in them, like information or data (illustrated by mushrooms or firepower), but you can also put coins in them, like bitcoin. When you mine a block (hit it with your head) a coin would come out and get added to your wallet. Now Mario was limited at the time so the wallet could only hold one hundred coins and got reset when you passed that number. The game added the 1-up fur fun, but your coins were gone. It was not until later that we got the immutable aspect down. If you look at the bottom of any level on Super Mario 1, you will the bottom is made up blocks. They are red in the first level, white in the castle and blue when you go underground. But they are all blocks that are chained together so the user, in this case Mario, can run on it. Hence the title blockchain.
Fun fact, the chomps that are chained to blocks in Mario 3 are a fun shout-out to the blockchain technology that started the Mario franchise.
The new Mario games are just games and blockchain has taken a life of its own, but, for one moment, the two were combined. Too bad you could not play a game like Mario and get bitcoin though, I would be a millionaire :p.
And yes this whole article is full of shit.
*my upvotes/rep disclaimer: @whatageek/my-steemit-account-where-i-stand-on-bots-self-votes-and-multiple-account