A distributed ledger (also called a shared ledger or distributed ledger technology or DLT) is a system whereby replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data is geographically spread (distributed) across many sites, countries, or institutions.[1] In contrast to a centralized database, a distributed ledger does not require a central administrator, and consequently does not have a single (central) point-of-failure.[2][3]
In general, a distributed ledger requires a peer-to-peer (P2P) computer network and consensus algorithms so that the ledger is reliably replicated across distributed computer nodes (servers, clients, etc.).[2] The most common form of distributed ledger technology is the blockchain[citation needed] (commonly associated with the bitcoin cryptocurrency), which can either be on a public or private network. Infrastructure for data management is a common barrier to implementing DLT.[4]