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Glossary
The words / terms used in the Setheum Network that you would like to know.
The glossary used in this Wiki, Setheum White papers, in and around the Setheum Network.
[More] Need to add more Setheum Network related vocabulary in the future as more of the technology is being introduced and implemented.
Setheum
The Decentralized Finance Network for Stablecoins, Payments, Trading and Liquidity built with Substrate framework, and to be connected to the Polkadot network.
Attestation
In the Polkadot validity system, an attestation is a type of message that validators broadcast that says whether they think a parachain candidate block is valid or invalid.
Authority
An authority is a generic term for the role in a blockchain that is able to participate in the consensus mechanisms. In GRANDPA, the authorities vote on chains they consider final. In BABE, the authorities are block producers. Authority sets can be chosen by mechanisms such as the NPoS algorithm.
BABE
Blind Assignment of Block Extension is Polkadot's block production mechanism.
Block
A collection of data, such as transactions, that together indicates a state transition of the blockchain
Block explorer
An application that allows a user to explore the different blocks on a blockchain.
BLS
Boneh-Lynn-Shacham (BLS) signatures have slow signing, very slow verification, require slow and much less secure pairing friendly curves, and tend towards dangerous malleability. Yet, BLS permits a diverse array of signature aggregation options far beyond any other known signature scheme, which makes BLS a preferred scheme for voting in consensus algorithms and for threshold signatures.
Bonding
A process by which tokens can be "frozen" in exchange for some other benefit. For example, staking is a form of bonding for which you receive rewards in exchange for securing the network. You can also bond tokens in exchange for a parachain slot.
Bridge
A parachain that acts as an intermediary between the Polkadot Relay Chain and an external chain, in such a way that it appears to the Relay Chain that the external chain is a parachain (i.e., meets the Polkadot Host's requirements of parachains). Bridges allow for interaction between other blockchains, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, that are not natively compatible with Polkadot.
Byzantine Fault Tolerance
The property of a system that is tolerant of Byzantine faults; that is, a system where not only may individual subsystems fail, but it may not be clear if a particular subsystem has failed or not. That is, different observers on the system may not agree on whether or not the system has failed. Ensuring Byzantine fault tolerance is an important part of developing any distributed system.
CDP
Collateralized Debt Position.
Collator
A node that maintains a parachain by collecting parachain transactions and producing state transition proofs for the validators.
Consensus
The process of a group of entities to agree on a particular data value (such as the ordering and makeup of blocks on a blockchain). There are a variety of algorithms used for determining consensus. The consensus algorithm used by both Setheum and Polkadot is GRANDPA.
DApp
A generic term for a decentralized application, that is, one that runs as part of a distributed network as opposed to being run on a specific system or set of systems.
DNAR
The abbreviation and ticker for Setheum's Dinar staking and governance tokens.
DOT
The native token for Polkadot. DOT serve three purposes: network governance (allowing them to vote on network upgrades and other exceptional events), general operation (rewarding good actors and punishing bad actors), and bonding (adding new parachains by "freezing" DOT while they are connected to the Relay Chain).
DS3
DNAR-SETT Stability System is the stability regime used by the SERP in the Setheum Network. The Stability policy of the Network is the DS3.
DS3 Fund
The DS3 Fund is the ecosystem fund of the Setheum Ecosystem, stewarded by the Setheum Foundation. The DS3 Fund is founded to prop the ecosystem building, diversity and adoption of the Setheum Ecosystem by providing grants, bounty programs, hackathons, community events and other activities to foster the growth and development of the Setheum Ecosystem.
Duty Rooster
A lookup table that specifies the job that a particular validator is required to do (i.e. attest to the validity of a specific paracahain). The duty rooster routinely shuffles the validator set into different subsets per parachain.
Epoch
An epoch is a time duration in the BABE protocol that is broken into smaller time slots. Each slot has at least one slot leader who has the right to propose a block. In Setheum, it is 4 hours (2,400 slots).
Era
A (whole) number of sessions, which is the period that the validator set (and each validator's active nominator set) is recalculated and where rewards are paid out. An Era is approximately 24 hours in Setheum.
Equivocation
Providing conflicting information to the network. BABE equivocation entails creating multiple blocks in the same slot. GRANDPA equivocation would consist of signing multiple conflicting chains.
Extrinsic
State changes that come from the outside world, i.e. they are not part of the system itself. Extrinsics can take two forms, "inherents" and "transactions".
Finality
The property of a block that cannot be reverted. Generally, created blocks are not final until some point in the future - perhaps never, in the case of "probabilistic finality". The Polkadot Relay Chain uses a deterministic finality gadget known as GRANDPA.
Finality Gadget
A mechanism that determines finality.
Fisherman
Nodes that monitor the network for validators or collators who are behaving badly. Fishermen must stake a small amount of DNAR (DOTs in Polkadot, KSM in Kusama) but can be rewarded greatly if they find bad behavior.
Frame
The collection of Substrate pallets (Substrate Runtime Modules).
Genesis
The origin of a blockchain, also known as block 0. It can also be used to reference the initial state of the blockchain at origination.
Governance
The process of determining what changes to the network are permissible, such as modifications to code or movement of funds. The governance system in Setheum is on-chain and revolves around stakeholder voting.
Governance Council
An on-chain entity that consists of several on-chain accounts. The Council can act as a representative for "passive" (non-voting) stakeholders. Council members have two main tasks: proposing referenda for the overall stakeholder group to vote on and cancelling malicious referenda.
GRANDPA Finality Gadget
GHOST-based Recursive ANcestor Deriving Prefix Agreement (GRANDPA). It is the finality gadget for Polkadot, Kusama, and Setheum, which allows asynchronous, accountable, and safe finality to the blockchain. For an overview of GRANDPA, see this Medium post: https://medium.com/polkadot-network/polkadot-proof-of-concept-3-a-better-consensus-algorithm-e81c380a2372​
Hard Fork
A permanent diversion of a blockchain that can occur quickly due to a high priority change in a consensus rule. Clients who follow a hard fork always need to upgrade their clients in order to continue following the upgraded chain. Hard forks are considered permanent divergences of a chain for which non-upgraded clients are following consensus rules incompatible to the ones followed by upgraded clients.
Hard Spoon
Defined by Jae Kwon of Cosmos as "a new chain that takes into account state from an existing chain; not to compete, but to provide broad access." A non-contentious blockchain that inherits the state of the underlying blockchain and creates a new branch of the same blockchain.
Higher-Than-Market value (HTM)
This defines the value of a stablecoin when its traded for a higher price than the market price. For example the Serp buys back DNAR for SETT with an HTM, meaning when DNAR is bought with more SETT than it is worth in the market - to bring SETT back closer to the peg (this occurs when the SETT has more demand than supply, only 25% of newly minted SETT will be used to buy back DNAR with HTM).
Initial SettCurrency Offering (ISCO)
This defines the initial offering of New SettCurrencies.
As in the case of the first ever ISCO, SettPay and the SettCurrencies/stablecoins will be launched after Setheum Network Substrate Chain Genesis, when the initial 129,000,000 DNAR is already in the market as an ERC20 token for some months. The ISCO will launch after DNAR-jDNAR liquid staking phase has launched. The ISCO will be a 30 days event in which jDNAR holders (DNAR stakers) are required to deposit their jDNAR tokens within the first 20 days as "pre-ISCO", DNAR can still be locked until the main DAY 1 ISCO (funds releasing) begins. Then the main ISCO will start in which settcurrencies are released to depositors within another 10 days through a FIFO queue where the first to deposit will be the first to be paid out in settcurrencies 10% of deposit value (value at main ISCO launch time) per day for the remaining 10 days. Then the locked LiquidDinar (jDNAR) will be released in full on the last day. The ISCO will issue SettCurrencies valued at 100% of all locked jDNAR at main ISCO launch time, 70% to the depositors and 30% to the SettPay system for initial SettPay and SettCard discounts and cashback.
Lower-Than-Market value (LTM)
This defines the value of a stablecoin when its traded for a lower price than the market price. For example the Serp buys back SETT for DNAR with an LTM, meaning when SETT is bought with less DNAR than it is worth in the market - to bring SETT back closer to the peg (this occurs when the SETT has more supply than demand).
Inherent
Extrinsics that are "inherently true." Inherents are not gossiped on the network and are put into blocks by the block author. They are not provably true the way that the desire to send funds is, therefore they do not carry a signature. A blockchain's runtime must have rules for validating inherents. For example, timestamps are inherents. They are validated by being within some margin that each validator deems reasonable.
KSM
The abbreviation for Kusama network tokens.
Kusama
The "canary network" for Polkadot. It consists of an early-release, unaudited version of the Polkadot software. It is not a testnet - after the transition to NPoS, the network is entirely in the hands of the community (i.e., Kusama token holders).
LIBP2P
An open-source library for encrypted peer-to-peer communications and other networking functionality. More information at: https://libp2p.io/​
Liveness
The property of a distributed system that it will eventually come to some sort of consensus. A system stuck in an infinite loop would not be considered live, even if computations are taking place; a system that eventually provides a result, even if incorrect or it takes a long time, is considered to have liveness.
Message
In Polkadot's XCMP protocol, a message is arbitrary data that is sent from one parachain (the egress chain) to another (the ingress chain) through a channel and ensured delivery by the validator set.
Message Queue
In Polkadot's XCMP protocol, a message queue is the list of messages waiting to be process by a particular receiving parachain over a channel.
NFT
Non-Fungible Token, meaning tokens that are one of a kind unique in their properties. Often called Cryptocollectibles.
Node Explorer
A tool that gives you information about a node, such as the latest blocks sealed, finalized, and the current chain state as known by that node.
Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS)
A Proof-of-Stake system where nominators back validators with their own stake as a show of faith in the good behavior of the validator. Nominated Proof-of-Stake differs from the more generic concept Delegated Proof-of-Stake in that nominators are subject to loss of stake if they nominate a bad validator; delegators are not subject to loss of stake based on the behavior of the validator. Note that some other blockchain technologies may use the term Delegated Proof-of-Stake, even if delegators can be slashed. Both Polkadot and Setheum use the Phragmen method to allocate stake to nominees.
Nominator
Accounts that select a set of validators to nominate by bonding their tokens. Nominators receive some of the validators' rewards, but are also liable for slashing if their nominated validators misbehave.
On-chain Governance
A governance system of a blockchain that is controlled by mechanisms on the blockchain. On-chain governance allows decisions to be made in a transparent manner. Note that there are a variety of different algorithms for making these decisions, such as simple majority voting, adaptive quorum biasing, or identity-based quadratic voting.
Oracle
Decentralised Oracles provide price feed information for assets on the Setheum network.
Pallet
A Substrate runtime module. The bluggable building block for a Substrate chain.
Parachain
A blockchain that meets several characteristics that allow it work within the confines of the Polkadot Host. Also known as "parallelized chain."
Parachain Registry
A relatively simple database-like construct that holds both static and dynamic information on each chain.
Parity Technologies
A company, co-founded by Dr. Gavin Wood, that is developing Substrate and Polkadot. It has also released several other projects including Parity Ethereum and Parity Bitcoin.
Peg
A peg means the fixed value of a currency (in this case SETT) against the value of another currency, a basket of other currencies, or another measure of value. So 1 settNGN is fixed to the value of 1 NGN (Nigerian Naira), and if 1 settNGN goes down in value to for instance 0.8 NGN then some amount of Sett is bought back for burning with the actual peg value to fill the gap, and vice-versa.
Polkadot
A heterogeneous, multi-chain network allowing various blockchains of different characteristics to perform arbitrary, cross-chain communication under shared security.
Proof of Stake (PoS)
A method of selecting participation in a consensus system, in which participants are chosen based on how many tokens they have at stake (at risk of loss due to misbehavior). Normally, Proof-of-Stake systems limit the number of participants.
Proof of Validity
A proof produced by parachain collators. Based on this proof and the parachain registry, a validator can verify that a parachain has properly executed its state transition function. Proofs of Validity go into the Relay Chain blocks.
Proof of Work (PoW)
A method of selecting participants in a consensus system, typically the longest chain rule, in which participants try to solve a puzzle like finding a partial pre-image of a hash. Normally, a Proof-of-Work system can have any number of participants. PoW is used on the Bitcoin and Eth1.0 blockchains.
Proposal
A potential function call to be voted on in a referendum. Proposals modify the behavior of the Acala network, from minor parameter tuning all the way up to replacing the runtime code.
Protocol
A system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics and synchronization of communication and possible recovery methods.
Random Seed
A random seed is pseudo-random number available on-chain. It is used in various places of the Polkadot protocol, most prominently in BABE the block production mechanism.
Referendum
A vote on whether or not a proposal should be accepted by the network. Referenda may be initiated by the Governance Council, by a member of the public, or as the result of a previous proposal. Stakeholders vote on referenda, weighted by both the size of their stake (i.e. number of DNAR held).
Relay chain
The chain that coordinates consensus and communication between parachains (and external chains, via bridges).
Runtime
The state transition function of a blockchain. It defines a valid algorithm for determining the state of the next block given the previous state.
Runtime Module
A module that implements specific transition functions and features one might want to have in their runtime. Each module should have domain-specific logic. For example, a Balances module has logic to deal with accounts and balances. In Substrate, modules are called "pallets".
SAGA
Setheum Association of Government Alliance is founded by Muhammad-Jibril B.A., founder of the Setheum Network, just like SEANET but for Public Bodies, NGOs, Universities & Governments starting with Government Departments we already work with and those we worked with in Nigeria, to support them to build on the Setheum Network and increase the value and adoption of the Entire Polkadot & Substrate Ecosystem as We will promote development with ink! and Substrate and many advanced, niche and beautiful **FRAME modules will be built for various use cases, thus propping the adoption of Rust too.
SEANET
Setheum Enterprise Alliance Network is founded by Muhammad-Jibril B.A., the founder of the Setheum, for Enterprise Alliance to foster adoption amongst Enterprise clients, E-Commerce and Enterprise Platforms (i.e. Macy's, Uber, Walmart, BigCommerce, WordPress, Shopify, Shoprite, Jumia, Fortnite, Slack, Atlassian, Salesforce, McDonalds, KFC, et al.) and invite small businesses and niche stores and even Universities to build on the Setheum Network and increase the value and adoption of the Entire Polkadot & Substrate Ecosystem as We will promote development with ink! and Substrate and many advanced, niche and beautiful FRAME modules will be built for various use cases, thus propping the adoption of Rust too.
SETT
The abbreviation and ticker for Setheum's Sett/Settcoin Multi-peg Dinar backed Stablecoin
SEVM (Sevim)
The Sevim or SEVM is the Setheum-Ethereum Virtual Machine for deploying Ethereum standard smart contracts on Setheum just like on Ethereum's EVM seemlessly.
Safety
The property of a distributed system indicating that a particular state transition will not be reverted. GRANDPA provides deterministic safety. That is, for a state changed marked as "safe" or "final", one would require a hard fork to revert that change.
Sealing
The process of adding a block to the Relay Chain. Note that finalization is a separate process - blocks are finalized some time after they are sealed.
Session
A session is a Substrate implementation term for a period of time that has a constant set of validators. Validators can only join or exit the validator set at a session change.
Session Certificate
A message containing a signature on the concatenation of all the Session keys. Signed by the Controller.
Session Key
Hot keys that are used for performing network operations by validators, for example signing GRANDPA commit messages. Check Keys here.
Setheum Foundation
A Foundation founded by Muhammad-Jibril B.A. (MBA), the founder of Setheum, the Setheum Foundation nurtures and stewards technologies and applications in the fields of decentralized web software protocols, particularly those that utilize modern cryptographic methods to safeguard decentralization, to the benefit and for the stability of the Setheum ecosystem. The Setheum Foundation stewards the DS3 Fund (Ecosystem Fund).
Setheum Labs
A Blockchain Technology Company founded by Muhammad-Jibril B.A. (MBA), the founder of Setheum, Setheum Labs is developing Setheum, SettIndex and SettPay and other projects in the Setheum Ecosystem
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SGC
The Setheum General Council will consist of 5 members from the start, they will be in charge of the General governance of the Network. Check The SGC.
STC
The Setheum Technical Council will consist of 3 members from the start, they will be in charge of the governance of the Technical aspects of the Network. Check The STC.
SMC
The Setheum Monetary Council will consist of 3 members from the start, they will be in charge of the governance of the Monetary aspects of the Network. Check The SMC.
SFC
The Setheum Financial Council will consist of 3 members from the start, they will be in charge of the governance of the Financial aspects of the Network. Check The SFC.
SIC
The Setheum Investment Council will consist of 3 members from the start, they will be in charge of the governance of the SIF (Setheum Investment Fund) aspects of the Network. Check The SIC.
SIF
The Setheum Investment Fund is the Setheum version of a Public Investment Fund / Sovereign Wealth Fund. Focused on diversifying Setheum's Economy by investing in other blockchains & cryptocurrencies either in the Setheum Ecosystem or outside the ecosystem. Check The SIF​
Shared Security
The security model that Polkadot uses whereby all chains are equally secured. This is achieved by placing proofs of validity of parachain blocks into the Relay Chain such that, in order to revert finality of a single parachain, an attacked would need to attack the entire Polkadot system.
Slashing
The removal of a percentage of an account's DNAR or DOT as a punishment for a validator acting maliciously or incompetently (e.g., equivocating or remaining offline for an extended period of time).
Soft Fork
A backwards compatible change to client code that causes upgraded clients to start mining a new chain. Requires a "vote-by-hashrate" of majority of miners in order to enact successfully. Soft forks are considered temporary divergences in a chain since non-upgraded clients do not follow the new consensus rules but upgraded clients are still compatible with old consensus rules.
Staking
The act of bonding DNAR tokens (DOT for Polkadot) by putting them up as "collateral" for a chance to produce a valid block (and thus obtain a block reward). Validators and nominators stake their DNAR in order to secure the network.
State transition function
A function that describes how the state of a blockchain can be transformed. For example, it may describe how tokens can be transferred from one account to another.
Substrate
A modular framework for building blockchains. Polkadot, Kusama, Setheum, and other interesting projects are all built using Substrate. Chains built with Substrate will be easy to connect as parachains to the Polkadot Network and easier to communicate with eachother.
Tabling
In both Setheum and Polkadot governance, bringing a proposal to a vote via referendum. Note that this is the British meaning of "tabling", which is different than the US version, which means "to postpone" a measure.
Transaction
An extrinsic that is signed. Transactions are gossiped on the network and incur a transaction fee. Transactions are "provably true", unlike inherents. For example, one can prove that Alice wants to send funds to Bob by the fact that she signed a transfer-funds message with her private key.
Validator
A node that secures the Blockhain by staking DNAR, validating blocks and voting on consensus along with other validators.
Voting
The process of stakeholders determining whether or not a referendum should pass. Votes are weighted by the number of DNAR that the stakeholder account controls, votes in Setheum are performed in the Sequential Phragmen Method.
Wallet
A program that allows one to store private keys and sign transactions for Setheum or other blockchain networks.
Watermark
In Polkadot's parachain messaging scheme, the watermark is the minimum processed send-height of the receiving parachain. All messages on all channels that are sending to this parachain at or before the watermark are guaranteed to be processed.
Web3 Foundation
A Switzerland-based foundation that nurtures and stewards technologies and applications in the fields of decentralized web software protocols, particularly those that utilize modern cryptographic methods to safeguard decentralization, to the benefit and for the stability of the Web3 ecosystem.
WebAssembly / Wasm
An instruction format for a virtual, stack-based machine. Setheum Runtime Modules are compiled to WebAssembly, also known as Wasm.
Witness
Cryptographic proof statements of data validity.
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