Distributed ledger data is typically spread across multiple nodes (computational devices) on a P2P network, where each replicates and saves an identical copy of the ledger data and updates itself independently of other nodes. The primary advantage of this distributed processing pattern is the lack of a central authority, which constitutes a single point of failure. When a ledger update transaction is broadcast to the P2P network each distributed node processes a new update transaction independently, and then collectively all working nodes use a consensus algorithm to determine the new, correct copy of the updated ledger.