Blockchain technology is currently gaining significant attention from researchers and industry professionals for its potentially disruptive impact in diverse fields beyond cryptographic currencies. As a nascent technology, there is still great need for technical improvement in blockchain security and performance, and for the establishment of performance benchmarks for guiding adoption by industry and informing application-specific design choices. This literature review provides background concepts and terminology for understanding blockchain technology, followed by an overview of the current major consensus algorithms. The consensus algorithm is responsible for the unique properties that make a blockchain so secure and important. The strengths and weaknesses of the major consensus families are discussed, as well as the specific technical mechanisms that give rise to these properties. This is followed by a discussion of the most important performance metrics by which a blockchain instance should be measured, and the challenges we face in establishing meaningful comparative benchmarks. Finally, there is an overview of how blockchain technology might be meaningfully applied in an industry completely divorced from cryptocurrencies - supply chain management.