Distributed ledger

A distributed ledger is a database of information held and replicated independently by participants in a network called nodes. A blockchain is a specific subtype of a distributed ledger that provides a more secure distributed consensus.

It also called a shared ledger or referred to as distributed ledger technology. It can be a single ledger having layered permissions or consisting of multiple ledgers maintained by a distributed network of nodes. It is a consensus of shared, replicated and synchronized digital information geographically spread across multiple sites or institutions. Updates on a distributed ledger can be independently created and recorded, and are voted over to ensure a majority consensus is reached.

Depending on whether the network participants or nodes need permission to access and make changes to the ledger makes the distributed ledger public or private and permissioned or permissionless.

Distributed ledgers operate to organize data on a broad structure, blockchains operate much more specifically to organize data and update entries.