Decentralized Database

A decentralized database is a data store whose records are held and updated by many independent computers, so that no single administrator can alter, censor or delete data on their own. Changes are accepted only when participants agree through a set of rules, and each participant can usually check the data independently. Blockchains are the best-known type: a blockchain is an append-only decentralized database in which records are grouped into linked blocks. The term is broader than a distributed database, which spreads data across many machines that may still belong to one company; a decentralized database spreads control as well. Related designs include the distributed ledger and peer-to-peer storage networks such as Filecoin. The trade-off is that agreeing on every change makes them slower and costlier than a conventional database. Also see immutability.