Definition

A ledger is a record of an account containing financial transactions and has at least the beginning and ending balance. Between that, adjusting debit or credit transactions can take place. Each individual transaction is identified with a transaction number or other form of unique notation. These days Ledgers are stored digitally (example: Ripple Ledger) but before that it was kept on paper.

Examples of Usage

“I will search through the history of my transactions that are stored on the XRP Ledger to find the deposit I made.”

“Do you have the transaction ID from your XRP transfer? It will help me find the transaction on the Ledger.”

The history of the Ledger

We all know the Ledger as we use it in crypto but it was being used way before Bitcoin was even invented. In fact, the earliest records of a ledger date over 5000 years ago, those were made by the mesopotamians and those were recorded on clay tablets. Throughout history this evolved and in the early 1900’s banks across the world started to use them. But it wasn’t until 2009 when Satoshi Nakamoto released Bitcoin, a new Ledger technology. After that many new projects emerged adopting and improving this new revolutionary technology making it to what it is today.