We present a new overlay, called the Deterministic Decentral- ized tree (D2-tree). The D2-tree compares favourably to other overlays for the following reasons: (a) it provides matching and better complexities, which are deterministic for the supported operations; (b) the manage- ment of nodes (peers) and elements are completely decoupled from each other; and (c) an e±cient deterministic load-balancing mechanism is pre- sented for the uniform distribution of elements into nodes, while at the same time probabilistic optimal bounds are provided for the congestion of operations at the nodes.