Distributed digital ledger

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising a computer readable program for generating a new record in a digital ledger, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to perform the steps of:

• hashing a payload, public key, and signature of a parent record to generate a hash value;
• creating a new record with a new payload and a new public key;
• combining the hash value with the new payload and the new public key to generate a message value;
• generating a signature of the new record using the message value and a private key corresponding to the public key of the parent record;
• and
• adding the signature of the new record to the new record.

A digital ledger system, comprising:

• a hardware processor;
• a memory configured to store computer program instructions that, when executed by the hardware processor, cause the digital ledger system to execute one or more functional modules, including:
• a hashing module configured to compute a hash of a value;
• a joining module configured to join multiple input values into a single output bit value;
• a signing/verifying module configured to produce a signature of a value using a private key and to verify the authenticity of a value using a public key associated with the private key;
• a key module configured to generate key pairs, each key pair having an associated private key and public key;
• and
• a new record module configured to:
• hash a payload, public key, and signature of a parent record to generate a hash value using the hashing module;
• create a new record with a new payload and a new public key;
• combine the hash value with the new payload and the new public key to generate a message value using the joining module;
• generate a signature of the new record using the message value and a private key corresponding to the public key of the parent record using the signing/verifying module;
• and
• add the signature of the new record to the new record.