Token-based message exchange system

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having program instructions stored thereon that are capable of causing a first computer system to perform operations comprising:

• preparing to send a first message to a second computer system, including by:
• accessing information supplied by the second computer system that identifies a first amount of tokens requested by the second computer system to process a message;
• and
• in response to determining that an amount of tokens in a first account associated with the first computer system satisfies the first amount of tokens, causing a transaction to be written to a distributed ledger as a record that identifies a transfer of the first amount of tokens from the first account to a second account associated with the second computer system;
• sending the first message to the second computer system for processing;
• preparing to process a second message received by a third computer system, including by:
• determining, based on a set of records written in the distributed ledger, whether a second amount of tokens requested by the first computer system has been transferred to the first account from a third account associated with the third computer system;
• and
• in response to determining that the second amount of tokens has been transferred to the first account, processing the second message.

A method, comprising:

• a first computer system participating in a token-based authorization system having a ledger distributed among a plurality of computer systems, wherein the ledger is usable to record a transfer of tokens between accounts associated with the plurality of computer systems;
• the first computer system sending a first message to a second computer system included in the plurality of computer systems for processing, wherein sending the first message includes:
• accessing rate information that identifies a first requested amount of tokens for a message to be processed by the second computer system;
• and
• causing a first transaction to be committed to the ledger that records a transfer of the first requested amount of tokens from a first account associated with the first computer system to a second account associated with the second computer system.