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Glossary

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Key pair

Olga Hryniuk
A set of two keys: public verification key and private signing key. These keys are used to process and approve transactions within the blockchain.The public key is the address used as a sending or receiving address in a transaction. The private key is the secret that controls access to assets. Anyone can send assets to a public key address It is quick and ...
1 up votes and 0 down votes. Total score

Ouroboros

Olga Hryniuk
The consensus protocol for Cardano. Ouroboros ensures that all participants agree on valid transactions. It is the first consensus protocol proven to be secure through academic peer review. The name comes from an ancient symbol that represents eternity and symbolizes the theoretical eternity of a blockchain. There have been several versions of Ouroboros: Cla...
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Active stake

Ivan Irakoze
The stake that has been delegated to an individual pool.
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SECP

Olga Hryniuk
Standard for Efficient Cryptography. SECP256k1 is the name of the elliptic curve used by many blockchains to implement public key cryptography. Examples of SECP include the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) and Schnorr which allow users to verify the integrity of specific signed hashed data. ECDSA and Schnorr signature algorithms work with t...
1 up votes and 0 down votes. Total score

Sidechain toolkit

Ivan Irakoze
A toolkit developed by Input Output Global (IOG) and a team of specialist engineers, used to build unique sidechains that extend and scale Cardano without jeopardizing its stability or security. The toolkit allows a sidechain to have its own consensus algorithm and features. The sidechain is connected to the Cardano main chain through a bridge that allows a...
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Cardano Cube

Cardano Cube
An online explorer that shows you all the projects and DApps building on the Cardano blockchain. Use the Cardano Cube interactive ecosystem map to get a quick overview of all the projects.
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Ouroboros Genesis

Olga Hryniuk
This version of Ouroboros is planned to be deployed in 2023. Genesis adds a novel chain selection rule that enables new or offline parties to safely rejoin the blockchain without a need to do so from the genesis block. This provides the same security guarantees and simplifies the bootstrapping procedure for nodes that were offline for a long period of time.
1 up votes and 0 down votes. Total score

Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA)

Olga Hryniuk
Cardano uses the Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA) with elliptic curve Curve25519 as its base curve (aka. Ed25519). This gives fast signature verification and small signature sizes, which helps to improve the overall performance and security of the blockchain. Additionally, Ed25519 is designed to be resistant to certain types of cryptographic...
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Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)

Olga Hryniuk
ECC is used for developing cryptographic protocols and secure applications. ECC provides the same level of security as other mechanisms while using shorter keys and signatures. Examples of elliptic curves include Standards for Efficient Cryptography (SECP) signatures such as Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) and Schnorr.
1 up votes and 0 down votes. Total score

Utility token

Olga Hryniuk
A digital token that holds certain functionality in regard to a concrete project or environment. These tokens can be used as payment units, rewards, or grant access to a specific network.
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Security token

Olga Hryniuk
A digital asset that derives its value from an external asset that can be traded. Usually, it represents stocks, bonds, or revenue participation notes. Security tokens are subject to federal law governing regulations.
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Saturation

Olga Hryniuk
A term used to indicate that a particular stake pool has more stake delegated to it than is ideal for the network. Saturation is displayed as a percentage. Once a stake pool reaches 100% saturation, it will offer diminishing rewards. The saturation mechanism was designed to prevent centralization by encouraging delegators to delegate to different stake pools...
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Redeemer

Olga Hryniuk
A piece of information that can be associated with a UTXO and attached to the input transaction to unlock funds from a script.
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Performance

Olga Hryniuk
A measure of the efficiency of a stake pool, given as a percentage, is measured by how many blocks the stake pool has produced (and that are recorded on the main chain) compared to how many it was nominated to produce. For example, if a pool only produces half the number of blocks that were nominated, its performance rating is 50%. This could happen because ...
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Merkle tree

Olga Hryniuk
A data structure used in blockchain applications to encode data in a secure and efficient way. The Merkle tree allows a block of transactions to be generated in a single hash, which is used to verify its validity to the original set of transactions. Using hashes is time efficient and does not require the validation of every transaction from the chain history...
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Incentive

Olga Hryniuk
A way to encourage participants in the system to engage in the network by rewarding them with a return that is proportional to their efforts. Incentives aim to ensure equality and fairness in a distributed network of participants by encouraging consistent, active, and strong participation. Cardano's incentives model uses game theory to calculate the incentiv...
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Faucet

Olga Hryniuk
A web-based service that provides free tokens for testnets. Cardano testnets faucet can be found here.
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Datum

Olga Hryniuk
A piece of information that can be associated with a UTXO and is used to carry the script state such as its owner or the timing details of when the UTXO can be spent.
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Cost per epoch

Olga Hryniuk
A fixed fee, in ada, which the stake pool operator takes from the pool rewards every epoch to cover the costs of running a stake pool. The cost per epoch is subtracted from the total ada rewarded to a pool, before the operator takes their profit margin. Whatever remains is shared proportionally among the delegators.
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Controlled stake

Olga Hryniuk
The total amount of stake that a stake pool controls. It combines the stake that is owned by the pool operator with any stake that has been delegated to the pool by other ada holders. It can be measured as a total ada amount (e.g., 3 million ada), or as a percentage of the total supply of ada within the network (e.g., 5%).
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