A method for processing a token at a local device in a distributed arbitration system includes: receiving a first signal from first device indicating a request for access to a shared resource; receiving an indicator from a processing component of the local device indicating whether the processing component requires access to the shared resource; receiving a second signal from the local device, where a component of second signal indicates whether the local device has greater priority than another device in the set of one or more devices to access the shared resource; receiving a token from the chain network, the token granting a device access to the shared resource; determining a disposition of the token using the first signal and the second signal; disposing the token to allocate the shared resource to a device in response to the determined disposition; and updating the second signal in response to the determining.