# Distributed accounting protocol (Distributed book-keeping protocol)

A network of book-keepers every economic space agent has: programmable accounts that record and make transfers of assets and agree to account by a shared convention. Creates a reliable, granular, effective and cheap recordkeeping which is, in addition, programmable: can add account types and assets to be accounted. The book-keeping protocol is the place where a distributed economic network begins formally: as a well defined set of rules that are objective and can be followed, anyone can connect to books and keep records by utilizing the same rules and assets. Unlike a blockchain, ECSA book-keeping protocol does not have a centralized ledger (a global mutable state). The only state that is shared globally is the protocol (the bookkeeping rules). Also unlike a blockchain, ECSA book-keeping protocol does not rely on (cryptographic) secrecy, but instead builds on the possibility of privacy: thanks to the state locality of the network, every state has a location and every [Agent](/agent.md) has the ability to modulate which record she shares/keeps private. Furthermore, whereas in the legacy [Accounting](/accounting.md) protocol your and my records are always different - and therefore require “reconciliation” - here the record is the same shared object, which is only understood differently (debit/credit) depending who holds it. A.k.a. the distributed accounting protocol.


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