Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is a shared digital ledger that’s not kept in one central location, such as a bank’s main server or a company’s database. Instead, identical copies of it are stored on thousands of computers, also known as nodes, all over the world.

Think of it like a Google Doc that anybody can view and add to, but nobody can go back and secretly change past entries. When the network agrees on something and adds it, it gets locked in and is visible to all.

Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger that Bitcoin and Ethereum use. In this system, transactions are put into blocks and linked together by a chain that is meant to be hard to break.

One big advantage of DLT is that people can send money or trade things with each other right away. There is no need for banks or governments or companies to interfere. Since everyone holds the exact same updated record, itโ€™s really hard for anyone to cheat, sneak in fake changes or to destroy it. In short, DLT is the tech behind cryptocurrencies. It gets rid of the middlemen and uses a global network of computers to run a clear, hard-to-mess-up system.

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Synonyms:
Distributed Ledger Technology

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Related Terms

Quorum

The term quorum defines the essential number of required individuals or necessary votes which must be present to create valid decisions within blockchain networks and decentralized organizations. The crypto governance systems use quorum to guarantee that proposals receive approval only after sufficient stakeholders participate in the voting process. Quorum exists in decentralized autonomous organizations and token-based governance systems as a voting power requirement which must reach a specific percentage threshold. A proposal requires at least 20 percent of governance tokens

Gas Price

Every time money moves on a blockchain, someone bears the cost. That cost is called the gas price, and understanding it early can spare users some real frustration. Gas price is what a user offers to pay per unit of computational work when pushing a transaction through or executing a smart contract. It is not something a company sets or a bank quietly decides. It goes directly to the validators and miners doing the actual workโ€”processing, verifying, and locking transactions

Liquidity Pool

A liquidity pool is a digital pot of cryptocurrency locked inside an automated computer program, built to let people trade coins on the spotโ€”no bank, no broker, no third party taking a cut or slowing things down. What fills these pools isn’t institutional money, but regular people. Known as liquidity providers, they deposit matching values of two tokens and, in return, collect a share of the fees every time someone trades through that pool. Busier pools generate more fees, and