Popular examples of distributed ledgers are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple,

Fabric (Hyperledger Proj ect), and Corda (R3 CEV).

The key advantages of DLT are decentralization and disintermediation,

easier

auditability

and

greater

transparency,

automation

and

programmability, immutability and verifiability, gains in speed and

efficiency, cost reductions, and enhanced cybersecurity resilience.

A blockchain is a shared database filled with entries that must be confirmed

and encrypted. The reason why it is a highly secured and verified document

is that every document entry is dependent on a logical relationship to all its

predecessors.

U sing cryptographic signatures called a hash, blockchain refers to the

“blocks” added to the chain of transaction records.

The process by which data is recorded in a blockchain-based distributed

ledger is by forming an append-only chain of transaction blocks in a

chronological order which contain hash digests of the transactions to be

added to the ledger, a proof-of-work and a digital signature of the hash by

the sender’s private key, and public keys of the sender and the intended

recipient of the transaction.

Starting with the first-ever entry in the ledger (the “genesis block”), and

each appended block containing hashed information of the previous block,

the chronological order of the chain is set.

A comparison of blockchain and distributed

ledger

A sequence of blocks is a blockchain and is a type of distributed ledger,

whereas distributed ledgers do not require such a chain; also, they do not

require proof-of-work and offer better scaling options.

The concept is appealing as DLT removes the intermediary party. A

distributed ledger does not need to have a data structure in blocks like a

blockchain. A blockchain is a type and subset of a distributed ledger.

Not all distributed ledgers are blockchains, but all blockchains are

distributed ledgers.