Distributed ledger computing platforms and associated methods, systems and devices

A distributed computing system configured to enable a network of users of the system to participate in one more transactions, comprising:

• a distributed ledger system comprising:
• a network of computing devices including at least one group of user nodes in communication with one another to participate in transacting and recording transactions in at least one associated blockchain, each node being associated with at least one processor and at least one computer readable medium, at least one user node in the group being initiated and operable via an instance of one or more web-application(s) running in a web-browser executed by one or more associated computing device(s),
• the web-application(s) being configured to initiate and operate an associated user node to participate in transacting and recording transactions for at least one blockchain of at least one group of user nodes by:
• obtaining a node address for the associated user node for each of the at least one blockchains that the user node is configured to participate in, the node address including an indication of each associated blockchain;
• requesting data indicative of a current iteration of the blockchain from the group of user nodes, without downloading the entire chain, and storing the current iteration of each blockchain in electronic memory of the computing device(s) associated with the user node, for each of the at least one blockchains that the user node is configured to participate in;
• and
• enabling the associated user node to:
• communicate with the group of user nodes to participate in transactions with the group of user nodes, for each of the at least one blockchains that the user node is configured to participate in, and
• carry out one or more blockchain-related tasks including creating, updating and/or maintaining each of the at least one blockchains based on the transactions between the group of user nodes, for each of the at least one blockchains that the user node is configured to participate in:
• the network of computing devices enabling at least one ephemeral user node of at least one group of user nodes to temporarily join and operate within the group of user nodes by initiating a temporary instance of the respective web application(s), wherein at least one ephemeral user node is configured to initiate participation in blockchain-related transactions through execution of the web application at the user device, the ephemeral user node being configured to access the blockchain(s) during the temporary execution instance of the respective web application(s), wherein the ephemeral node is configured to temporarily join the network of user nodes to carry out the blockchain-related tasks in association with at least one blockchain during an active session of the ephemeral user node;
• one or more databases accessible by the at least one node of at least one group of user nodes for recording and reading data relating to one or more transactions of each of the at least one blockchain of the distributed ledger system;
• wherein the one or more transactions stored in the one or more databases are configured to be sent to data access layer software, the data access layer software being configured to assemble transaction messages and to route the assembled transaction messages to one or more system components for processing and storage in at least one of the one or more blockchains and at least one of the one or more databases;
• and
• wherein the data access layer software is configured to associate one or more transactions stored in one or more of the databases with a temporary status indicator during pending validation on one or more blockchains, and to update or remove the temporary status indicator after each transaction has been confirmed on a blockchain.