This image is most useful in the context of building base images (such as debian and busybox) or super minimal images (that contain only a single binary and whatever it requires, such as hello-world).

As of Docker 1.5.0 (specifically, docker/docker#8827), FROM scratch is a no-op in the Dockerfile, and will not create an extra layer in your image (so a previously 2-layer image will be a 1-layer image instead).