The term "Distributed Ledger Technology" or DLT is an "umbrella term" that gets used by different authors in different ways. Generally speaking a Distributed Ledger ("DL") is a 1) Ledger, aka a database, 2) where multiple parties each store a copy of the ledger (i.e. it the ledger is "distributed" among multiple parties); and 3) where multiple parties can read from and write to the ledger The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance proposes the following formal definition A DLT system is a system of electronic records that 1. enables a network of independent participants to establish a consensus around 2. the authoritative ordering of cryptographically-validated (‘signed’) transactions. These records are made 3. persistent by replicating the data across multiple nodes and 4. tamper-evident by linking them by cryptographic hashes. 5. The shared result of the reconciliation/consensus process - the ‘ledger’ - serves as the authoritative version for these records. [[Rauchs et al. 2018-08]](24). [[Anil Kavuri]] and [[Alistair Milne]] offer the following definition A distributed ledger (DL) is a database of 1. cryptographically-secured 2. time-ordered immutable data records, 3. with multiple operators storing and independently updating their own copies of the database and 4. multiple users reading and proposing the addition of new data records. [[Kavuri & Milne 2020-01-29]](5) (This table is a placeholder for now -- intend to build it out to compare various definitions | Feature | | | | | | ------------------------- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Ledger | | | | | | No Central Control | | | | | | Cryptographically Secured | | | | | | Apend only | | | | | | Multiple | | | | | | Ledger | | | | |