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Ships & Tech

The node-ledger

also: the ledger · the open ledger

First in The Reach

The public, immutable, provably-authored seam-map the whole civilisation runs on.

In full

An append-only public record of the network: where the routes are, who observed what, and when — with provenance attached to every entry, so a claim can be checked rather than believed. History in it is immutable; live state changes only when reality does. It is the reason a survey ship is also a provenance authority, and the reason a finding can be put beyond argument by anyone willing to publish it. The machine records the truth perfectly. Whether anyone looks is a separate question.

Key facts

  • Public, append-only, provably-authored.
  • Authenticated records exist only where a node or observer has already been — new reaches are dark on it.
  • History immutable; live state changes only when reality changes.
  • Grew out of the two-layer node network: transport, and the public append-only ledger.

See also

Where it appears

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