A copy of a distributed ledger in a network that is distributed to all participants in a cryptocurrency network.
A replicated ledger refers to a duplicate of a
blockchain’s records. In this system,
ledgers are categorized as a master and slave copy. Master ledgers contain authoritative copies of blockchain information, while slave ledgers are mere replications of the master copy.
The idea behind the replicated ledger is to mitigate the risks in sharing only a single copy of the blockchain ledger to all network participants. Replicated ledgers do not have a single point of failure, because thr source blockchain will be replicated more than once. Also, every time a user adds new transactions to their own respective ledgers, the changes are spread throughout the
network and distributed to everyone.
In such a system, no single authority can take over the control of the network through the ledger because all participants bear a genuine copy of it, including every other update that they put in them.
The data in replicated ledgers contains the exact same pieces of information stored in the blocks of the original ledger. The data within them cannot be changed as well.
The system is also complemented through a
consensus protocol. The purpose of such a consensus protocol is to ensure that each copy of the blockchain is similar to the rest. Altered copies from previously replicated ledgers will be rejected.