APPEND-ONLY-LOGS

Append-only audit logs, no modification or deletion.

Definition

Append-only does not guarantee cryptographic integrity but prevents application-level modifications. Ideally paired with tamper-evident proof. Append-only systems: Kafka topics with compaction off, EventStore, AWS QLDB (Quantum Ledger DB), Datomic, BigQuery streaming inserts.

Origin

Fundamental concept of event sourcing systems since 2010.

Example in context

AWS QLDB stores journal entries in append-only with per-transaction Merkle proof.

Related terms

• Tamper-evident logs — cryptographic proof.