Citations

Existing Citations

  • agreement ledger (s.v. "Agreement Ledger"): A distributed ledger used by two or more parties to negotiate and reach agreement. (†2369)
  • attestation ledger (p.46 ; s.v. "Attestation register"): A distributed ledger providing a durable record of agreements, commitments or statements, providing evidence (attestation) that these agreements, commitments or statements were made. (†2370)
  • blockchain (p.46): (or blockchain technology). The generic name for the family of technologies that provide the same functionality as bitcoin, but which use different approaches to realising the functionality, via alternate algorithms for example, a family of solutions. (†2233)
  • Byzantine General's Problem (p.15): Computer scientists have long concerned themselves with the problem of maintaining a consistent and accurate set of records in a large and complex computer system where malfunctioning components give conflicting information to different parts of the system, or where hacked components deliberately lie in an attempt to subvert the system. Bitcoin is subject to this problem because the integrity of the distributed ledger must be maintained in an environment where some of the miners may be actively working to subvert the ledger. This problem is called the Byzantine Generals’ Problem as it’s often described in terms of a group of generals of the Byzantine army camped with their troops around an enemy city. · The problem is often formulated along the following lines: ‘Reliable computer systems must handle malfunctioning components that give conflicting information to different parts of the system. This situation can be expressed abstractly in terms of a group of generals of the Byzantine army camped with their troops around an enemy city. Communicating only by messenger, the generals must agree upon a common battle plan. However, one or more of them may be traitors who will try to confuse the others. The problem is to find an algorithm to ensure that the loyal generals will reach agreement. It is shown that, using only oral messages, this problem is solvable if, and only if, more than two-thirds of the generals are loyal; so a single traitor can confound two loyal generals. With unforgeable written messages, the problem is solvable for any number of generals and possible traitors. Applications of the solutions to reliable computer systems are then discussed.’ — Leslie Lamppost, Robert Shostak & Marshall Pease, The Byzantine Generals’ Problem (†2231)
  • consensus mechanism (p.46): Consensus Process. The process a group of peers responsible for maintaining a distributed ledger use to reach consensus on the ledger’s contents. (†2234)
  • distributed ledger technology (p. 12): We can think of distributed ledgers as a consequence of the mass adoption of digital networks, and the logical evolution of physical ledgers (lines of text in a codex) and digital ledgers (rows in a database). Both physical and digital ledgers record entries in a single place; as a central agency is typically responsible for them we might call them central ledgers. Central ledgers allow one authoritative copy of the data. For physical ledgers, this is a single codex, or a volume in a series. Digital ledgers use a single database, a system of record. (†2044)
  • distributed ledger technology (p.12): Distributed: Responsibility for maintaining the ledger shared by a group of peers. The current state of the ledger is represented by the peer’s consensus on what records the ledger contains. Other actors can obtain a copy of the ledger from any of the peers, as there is no single authoritative copy. Other actors can submit new records to any or all of the peers. Ledger identity and integrity ensured via the consensus process, that specifies how peers reach consensus. (†2229)
  • distributed ledger technology (p.16; s.v. "A definition" ): We therefore provide a definition of ‘distributed ledger’: a ledger maintained by a group of peers, rather than a central agency. · Any member of the group of peers can add records to the ledger. However, records are only accepted when the group agrees the record meets all the ledger’s requirements – typically it must be unique, correctly signed, etc. · For a distributed ledger to be trusted, it must have two characteristics: One, we must be confident the records it contains haven’t been tampered with. We do this with cryptography via digital signatures, in much the same way we sign other digital documents, and digital fingerprints using a technique called ‘hashing’, which is extremely sensitive to any change in underlying data. The use of cryptography is what gave virtual currencies created on digital ledgers the name ‘cryptocurrencies’. · Two, we must determine what records are stored in the ledger and their precedence – the ledger’s contents. The consensus view of the group of peers represents the contents of a distributed ledger. This consensus must be established in an environment where we assume some of the peers are providing erroneous data. (†2230)
  • ledger (p.46): An append-only record store, where records are immutable and may hold more general information than financial records. (†2235)
  • permissioned blockchain (p.22): A permissioned ledger is a ledger where actors must have permission to access the ledger. Permissioned ledgers map to closed trust-some or trust-all ledgers. Permission is granted in two different ways. The first is via a white list, a list of actors allowed to join the ledger’s community. The second is via a black list, a list of actors who are banned from the ledger’s community: a permissioned ledger using a black list would be a closed, trust-some ledger; a permissioned ledger using a white list could be either an open or closed, trust-some ledger. We note Bitcoin was originally designed to be permissionless, although it is becoming increasingly permission-based as the various services enabling one to access the ledger demand you identify yourself– typically to comply with anti money-laundering or counter-terrorism financing regulations. (†2232)
  • replicated ledger (p.46 ; s.v. "Replicated ledger"): A ledger with one master (authoritative) copy of the data, and many slave (non-authoritative) copies. (†2371)