The storage layer is a highly specialized database for storing the blockchain. It consists of five subcomponents:

• An abstract file system API, HasFS, that smooths out over some differences between the file systems of different operating systems and, more importantly, allows us to simulate all kinds of failures. This is then used for stress-testing the other components below.
• The Immutable DB, stores the part of the chain that is immutable, that is, no longer subject to rollback. It is an append-only database, providing efficient access to the chain. ImmutableDB defines the immutable DB API.
• The Volatile DB, stores the part of the chain near its tip. This doesn't really store a chain as such, but rather simply a collection of blocks from which we might construct a chain. VolatileDB defines the volatile DB API.
• The Ledger DB, stores the \(k\) last ledger states corresponding to the blocks on the current chain (which are part of the volatile DB), and means to read LedgerTables for them. LedgerDB defines the ledger DB API.
• The Chain DB finally combines all of these components. It makes decisions about which chains to adopt (chain selection), switches to forks when needed, deals with clock skew, and provides various interfaces to the rest of the consensus layer for things like finding out which blocks were invalid (so we can disconnect from the clients who sent them), cursors that follow the tip of the chain (so that we can inform our downstream peers of how our chain evolves), etc. In many ways, the chain DB is the component that is responsible for "consensus": deciding which chain is the one true chain. ChainDB defines the chain DB API.

NOTE: at the moment there is an inconsistency in the module structure for each of these components. In particular, Ouroboros.Consensus.Storage.LedgerDB contains the whole definition and API for the LedgerDB, but the other three databases are broken up into multiple smaller submodules. We aim to resolve this when UTxO-HD is merged.