Get the weekly summary of crypto market analysis, news, and forecasts! This Week’s Summary The crypto market ends the week at a total market capitalization of $2,17 trillion. Bitcoin continues to trade at around $62,300. Ethereum experiences no changes and stagnates at around $2,400. XRP is down by 2%, Solana by 1%, and Dogecoin by 3%. Almost all altcoins are trading in the red, with very few exceptions. The DeFi sector decreased the total value of protocols (TVL) to around…
A Beginner’s Guide to the Differences Between DLT and Blockchain
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There is excellent market confusion about the distinction between different terminologies that keep floating around. Most people, some calling themselves seasoned professionals, cannot tell apart Bitcoin and Ethereum or the difference between a Blockchain and a cryptocurrency. Some even go to lengths to propose solutions for projections that do not even have problems.
Let us hope the distinction between each is soon cleared. But, unfortunately, all the false promises and ill-informed market “experts” can divert their focus toward better understanding the prospects that the ecosystem can promise.
Distributed Ledger Technologies and Blockchain
Distributed technologies have been around way before Blockchain or bitcoin was even conceived. In its roots, DLT is a shared database synchronized periodically to maintain a copy of records around a distributed network of nodes. DLT mechanisms have been readily researched and implemented since the 1990s.
Think of a football field. All players in the same team are individual nodes, acting for the same end goal to make the team win. Similarly, DLT is just a broad name for any mechanism that does not have a central mode of communication and transfer but relies on everyone’s contribution. Distributed Ledger Technology is an umbrella term used to describe technologies that store, distribute, and facilitate value exchange between users privately or publicly.
Source: nakamo.to
What it lacked from the early representations of DLT mechanisms was a fool-proof consensus mechanism that proved the legitimacy of nodes on a peer-to-peer network across a wide geographical area that ensures the disincentive to provide duplicate and false records to the distributed network.
Is Blockchain the same as DLT, or is it different?
The answer is that Blockchain is nothing but a subset of DLT. All blockchains can be considered an iteration of Distributed Ledger Technologies, but not vice versa. DLT and Blockchain are yet sub-sets of a broader classification of Distributed Databases.
The Bitcoin blockchain became the most famous form of DLT mechanism since it was introduced in 2009. It solved the consensus problem and paved the way for a new range of applications under the DLT sphere.
A Blockchain is a subset of DLT. Blockchains are distributed database that includes consensus and verification mechanisms to provide authenticity across the network, maintaining their difference from a traditional DLT. Since 2009, thousands, if not millions, of use cases have been developed with Blockchain’s concept at its center.
Several blockchain mechanisms that differ from the original Bitcoin blockchain have also been developed, which best suit the case’s needs. For example, the first consensus mechanism was the Proof-of-work (PoW) that uplifted bitcoin to be the most widely used Blockchain-based cryptocurrency, as it provides consensus through staking energy. Since then, mechanisms such as Proof-of-stake (PoS), Delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPoS), Integrated Pow + PoS, Federated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (FBFT), etc., have been developed, tailored according to the needs of the specified Blockchain on which they are built upon.
Source: cryptocalibur.com
After the invention of a Blockchain, several organizations and consortiums, such as Quorum, R3, Hyperledger, EEA, etc., began to explore the concept of a “Private Blockchain,” a distributed database that doesn’t require data to be propagated to every user but can be delegated to a set of pre-specified trusted actors that guarantee the authenticity of the data.
Some think a “Private Blockchain” is an oxymoron because privatization strips Blockchain of all the essential features that distinguish it from a traditional distributed database. Thus, Corda, Hyperledger, and others similar to these come under the broad scope of Distributed Ledger Technology and not Blockchain.
Let us now list down the various “difference” that is characteristic of both broad terms:
| S. No | Digital Ledger Technology | Blockchain |
| 1 | Distributed Ledger Technologies are a sub-set of Distributed Databases | Blockchains are a sub-set of DLTs |
| 2 | Distributed Ledger Technologies have been proposed since back in the 1990s | The Bitcoin P2P paper was the first to set a classification of ‘blockchain.’ |
| 3 | DLTs are characteristic of the mechanism. They can be both Public and Private. Furthermore, they can be tweaked to suit the preferences of their creator. | Blockchains, by definition, are public and open. This is because they are programmed to include anyone and everyone wishing to join the network. |
| 4 | The structure of a DLT mechanism dictates its mode of communication and transfer protocols. Although not likely, DLTs can be Centralized, too, other than being decentralized and distributed. | Decentralization is an inherent future of Blockchain. Each Blockchain is looked upon by the degree of its decentralization. But by many standards, the bitcoin blockchain stands to be the most decentralized yet. |
| 5 | Broadly, DLT refers to the communication, collection, transfer, and accumulation of data over a distributed network. | The mechanism by which the data is stored, transferred, and can act as a digital value is what a blockchain is good at.
|
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I hope this brief explanation was clear enough for the reader to understand DLT and Blockchain’s nuances.
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