System and method for maintaining a distributed ledger

A computing device for implementing a client node of a distributed ledger, the computing device comprising:

• a memory storing (i) a distributed ledger defining a plurality of records each containing a set of values;
• (ii) a local voting weight corresponding to the client node, and (iii) respective remote voting weights for a plurality of remote client nodes;
• a processor connected to the memory, the processor configured to:
• obtain a proposed update to a record of the distributed ledger;
• generate a local vote to apply or discard the proposed update and transmitting the local vote to the remote client nodes;
• receive remote votes to apply or discard the proposed update from the remote client nodes;
• in response to receiving the remote votes, generating a weighted local vote according to the local voting weight, and generating weighted remote votes according to the remote voting weights;
• perform an initial determination of whether to permit the proposed update based on (i) the weighted local vote, and (ii) a subset of the weighted remote votes received before a timeout period;
• apply the proposed update to the distributed ledger or discarding the proposed update according to the initial determination;
• subsequent to the timeout period, determine whether to permit the proposed update based on (i) the weighted local vote, and (ii) the weighted remote votes;
• and
• according to the determination, re-apply or reverse the proposed update to the distributed ledger or discarding the proposed update.