A study and review of distributed ledger technologies

With the rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies, distributed ledger technology is a term that has gained traction. The aim of this study is to review and comparethe distributed ledger technologies blockchain and directed acyclic graph, examining their internal structures as well as some platforms and existing areas of application. An implementation, the goal of which is to illustrate the components of a possible distributed ledger solution and how they might interact, has been made in the form of a smart contract deployed on a simulated distributed ledger network. To give some explanation to the foundations of distributed ledger technology, a brief overview is given on the topics of cryptography, underlying data structures, and the frameworks used in this study. The literature study has been conducted by collecting and reviewing primarily scientific articles on the topic of distributed ledger technologies and consensus algorithms, as well as white papers on selected distributed ledger platforms. The construction has been done using the framework Hyperledger Fabric. The result chapter reviews how the implemented smart contract fulfills the concrete goals. The study is concluded with a discussion regarding how distributed ledgers might possibly be used in thef uture, what might be done to further develop the implemented smart contract and some of the ethical concerns surrounding distributed ledger technology