WHAT: Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is a peer-to-peer (P2P) network architecture using a database spread across several nodes – where each replicates and saves an identical copy of a ledger and updates itself independently. P2P security is also accomplished via cryptographic keys and signatures.
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WHY: The primary advantage of a DLT is the optional lack of a central authority. When a ledger update happens, each node constructs a new transaction, and then the nodes vote via a consensus algorithm (PoW, PoS, PoA, DPoS, etc) on which copy is correct and usable. Once a consensus has been determined, all the other nodes update themselves with the new, correct copy of the ledger.
EXAMPLES: There are three accepted versions of this technology, of which “blockchain” is the most well known and widely deployed:
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REFERENCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_ledger
https://medium.com/nakamo-to/what-is-dag-distributed-ledger-technology-8b182a858e19
https://medium.com/nakamo-to/whats-the-difference-between-blockchain-and-dlt-e4b9312c75dd
(P2) https://codeburst.io/distributed-ledger-technology-fundamentals-you-must-know-2d0f82628258
https://medium.com/coinmonks/know-which-blockchain-or-dlt-platform-works-well-within-your-usecase-comparison-of-different-a8dc34782af3
(P1) https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Traditional-centralised-ledger-and-a-distributed-ledger_fig1_327867089