A method for performing end-to-end "tree-based ordered multicasting" (TOM) which ensures collective integrity and consistency of distributed operations, and which is applicable to distributed multiparty collaboration and other multipoint applications. The TOM protocol performs cascaded total ordering of messages among on-tree hosts en route from senders to receivers, and does not require the building of a separate propagation graph to compute ordering information. TOM elects sequencer nodes dynamically based on address extensions of the multicast tree. Message ordering is performed by multicasting a message from each source node to receivers, unicasting a control message from a source node across a primary node to an ordering node for the designated multicast group or transmission in the tree, determining a binding sequence number for the message and a multicast to the receiver group, and delivering messages at end hosts according to the agreed-upon sequence numbers.