Decentralized Ledger

A decentralized ledger is a record of transactions that no single party owns. Instead of one bank or company keeping the official copy, a network of indepe

A decentralized ledger is a record of transactions that no single party owns. Instead of one bank or company keeping the official copy, a network of independent computers each hold the same history and agree on updates through consensus. A blockchain is the most common type.

Why it matters

When the record is shared across many independent parties, any single actor — or small group — can’t quietly rewrite history or shut the system down. That distributed ownership of the record is what makes the system decentralized in the first place.

Related terms

blockchain · node ·
decentralization

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