Tracking digital assets on a distributed network

A method for tracking digital assets stored on digital asset storage media comprising:

• detecting availability of a reference asset storage medium at a first time;
• determining a reference medium identifier that uniquely identifies the reference asset storage medium;
• storing an association between the reference medium identifier and the reference asset storage medium in a database in a persistent storage area accessible from a plurality of network nodes on a distributed network;
• enumerating digital assets stored on the reference asset storage medium;
• storing renditions of the enumerated digital assets in a cached storage area accessible from the plurality of network nodes to preserve access to the enumerated digital assets even when the reference asset storage medium is not connected to the distributed network;
• determining digital asset identifiers that uniquely identify each of the enumerated digital assets;
• storing an association between the digital asset identifiers, the reference medium identifier and the renditions of the digital assets in the database on the persistent storage area;
• at a second later time, detecting the availability of a candidate asset storage medium;
• determining a candidate medium identifier that uniquely identifies the candidate asset storage medium;
• and
• comparing the candidate medium identifier to the reference medium identifier stored in the database in the persistent storage area to determine whether the candidate asset storage medium is the same as the reference asset storage medium.