Glossary

30 of 30 terms

Account

An address on the network that holds tokens or data and is controlled by a key or a program.

Block

A batch of transactions that validators agree on together. A new block is produced every 400 ms.

Block height

The number of blocks since the network began; a simple way to point at a moment in its history.

Bridge

A program that moves assets or messages between this network and another one.

Commission

The share of staking rewards a validator keeps before paying delegators.

Consensus

The process by which validators agree on the next block.

Delegation

Assigning your stake to a validator so it counts towards consensus, while you keep ownership.

Epoch

A fixed period (about two days) after which rewards are paid and the validator set can change.

Faucet

A service that hands out free testnet tokens so developers can test programs.

Fee lane

A separate fee market for a busy program, so its demand does not raise fees for everyone else.

Finality

The point after which a block can no longer be reversed.

Gas / compute units

The measure of work a transaction asks validators to do; fees scale with it.

Governance

How holders propose and vote on changes to the protocol and the treasury.

Indexer

A service that reads the chain and stores its data in a form that is quick to query.

Light client

Software that verifies the chain's headers without storing the full history.

Liquid staking

Staking through a program that gives you a token representing your stake, which you can use elsewhere.

Mainnet

The live network, where tokens have real value.

Passkey

A key stored securely on your device and unlocked with your face, fingerprint or PIN, used instead of a password or phrase.

Program

Code deployed to the network that anyone can call — this network's name for a smart contract.

Quorum

The share of staked supply that must vote for a governance result to count.

Recovery phrase

A list of words that can restore a wallet. Anyone who has it controls the funds.

RPC endpoint

A server address applications use to read the chain and send transactions.

Session key

A short-lived key with limited permissions, so a game or app can act without asking you to sign each step.

Slashing

A penalty that removes part of a validator's stake — and its delegators' — for provable misbehaviour.

Stake

Tokens locked to secure the network. More stake means more weight in consensus.

Testnet

A copy of the network for testing, where tokens have no value.

Transaction

A signed instruction to transfer tokens or call a program.

Unbonding period

The time stake stays locked after you ask to withdraw it — 14 days on this network.

Validator

A computer, run by an independent operator, that produces and verifies blocks.

Validator client

The software a validator runs. Several independent clients keep one bug from halting the network.