A block chain is a similarly verifiable append-only log and map. However, block chains loosen the restriction of "trust this other singular party but verify what they have done" and broaden that to, "trust the majority of nodes in this network, but verify." It's likely that there is some improvement in the periodic "publish an authoritative tree hash" step which digital currencies do not use yet, see the table at the back and think about how many cases one needs to download the entire ledger for with digital currencies... But of course the proof-of-work schemes are important to get that "majority of the nodes" trust.
