A Simple Guide to Understanding the Difference Between Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Believers | Medium

Blockchain and distributed ledgers are starting to change our lives for the better. You’d be hard pressed to quell the passions displayed by both Blockchain believers and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) enthusiasts in their pursuit of life-changing technologies.

If you’re new to the space, you may be confused about the exact differences between a blockchain and a distributed ledger. Information you may have read seems divided, perhaps at times as deeply as political issues found on both the left and the right. The exact definitions of each is outside the scope of this article.

Productive discussion and collaboration between the extremes of blockchain and DLT believers can only happen when the differences between them can be understood. Hopefully this guide will will bridge an unnecessary gap and bring productive thoughts and discussions from both sides of the spectrum.

The best of the new decentralized economy can only be created when labels and ideologies, that at times are no longer helpful, are displaced in favor of understanding.

One key differentiator, among many others, between Blockchain and DLT believers is the level of trust they have in centralized institutions.

Blockchain Believers

Blockchain believers, often close to the Cypherpunk movement, don’t trust centralized institutions and often believe that over the long run centralized institutions mean centralized power that will that will be wielded against the weakest — the people — need tools to protect themselves against the dominance of these centralized institutions.

For Cypherpunks, the key of a healthy system lies in the decentralization of power, which in the current information age often means access to data. This is a summary of the initial ideas of what motivated many Cypherpunks, although that label may encompass additional motivations that are not shared by others in this camp, especially since Blockchain created an economic incentive for a much larger group of participants to get this to work.