What is a Distributed Ledger?

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) whether it’s tracking supply chain data, or verifying transactions, is changing how information is collected. Data science, computing, hardware, networks, and software have increased the reliability and security for data. These new capabilities have removed third parties such as notaries or lawyers, regulators, banks or government entities from being required to verify and assure that the data is correct.

A distributed ledger (or distributed database) is a database that is shared by multiple people in different locations within a network. It is synchronized across the network to ensure that it is accurate. This makes the database more transparent and secure from tampering and reduces the risk of fraud or errors. DLTs also can save companies money by decreasing or eliminating the requirement for humans to track and record data.

There are a myriad of DLTs that are available, but the most well-known is blockchain, which acts as the backbone of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Other DLTs https://minexxo.com/2023/06/04/what-is-distributed-ledger/ are holochain (a more scalable option that utilizes virtual voting to create consensus) and the tempo/radix that divides a database into partitions in order for them to update in parallel instead of sequentially. DLTs offer a broad range of applications, including secure peer to peer payment systems. They are also being used to verify transactions, manage supply chains, track the origins of products, and in a variety of other ways increase the efficiency and transparency of business processes.