Ledger

A ledger is a record of transactions and balances. In crypto it refers to the blockchain itself — the running history of every transaction the network has agreed on.

How it works

Rather than living in one institution’s database, a blockchain ledger is distributed: copies are held and kept in sync across many independent nodes through a consensus mechanism. New transactions are grouped into blocks and appended in order, and once confirmed they become a permanent part of the shared record that anyone can inspect. Public chains let anyone read and write to this ledger, while permissioned ledgers restrict who can participate.

Why it matters

The shared, append-only ledger is what lets strangers agree on who owns what without a trusted middleman. Its transparency and tamper-resistance are the foundation of how cryptocurrencies work.

Example

Checking a coin’s transaction on a block explorer is simply reading an entry in its public ledger.