Glossary
Glossary Sections
General Glossary
Address
A shorthand name for Payment Address.
Synonyms
Asset
A shorthand name for digital asset.
Synonyms
Block
A record in the blockchain that contains and confirms transactions.
See Also
Block Height
The block height is the total number of blocks that have been confirmed on the blockchain.
This term can also used to refer to identify a single unique block when specifying a specific block height since there is always exactly one block at any block height.
Synonyms
See Also
Block Interval
The approximate amount of time between between the creation of two blocks in a blockchain.
On Bitcoin blockchain the block interval is approximately every 10 minutes. On the Nervos blockchain the block interval is variable, but normally under 10 seconds.
Synonyms
See Also
Block Propagation
The process of synchronizing a new block to the majority of full nodes in the network.
Synonyms
See Also
Block Reward
A payment that is made in the native currency of the blockchain that is paid to to miners for providing the computational resources create a block and secure the blockchain.
See Also
Block Time
A alternate name for Block Interval.
Synonyms
Blockchain
An immutable data structure that where each subsequent block of data is cryptographically linked to the previous blocks. This creates a chain like structure where none of the historical data can be altered without causing a validation error.
See Also
Broadcast
A message that is sent to all nodes in a blockchain network.
See Also
Capacity
The maximum amount of space (in bytes) that a Cell can occupy on the Nervos blockchain.
Synonyms
See Also
Cell
A simple structure used hold a piece of state or data on the Nervos CKB.
A Cell is similar in concept to a Bitcoin UTXO.
Synonyms
See Also
Cell Model
A representation of how state is managed on Nervos CKB.
See Also
- Lock Script
- Nervos CKB
- Type Script
- Cell Model in Key Concepts
- Cell Model on the Nervos Blog
- UTXO on Bitcoin.org
Chain
A shorthand name for blockchain.
Synonyms
CKB
An abbreviation which can have different meanings depending on the context:
- Common Knowledge Base - The layer 1 blockchain of the Nervos Network.
- Common Knowledge Byte - The native token of the Nervos Common Knowledge Base.
Synonyms
CKByte
A shorthand name for Common Knowledge Byte.
CKByte is also sometimes shortened to CKB. Exchanges often use CKB as the ticker symbol.
Synonyms
Not To Be Confused With
CKB-VM
The virtual machine used to execute Scripts on Nervos CKB.
The instruction set of CKB-VM is RISC-V.
See Also
Cold Storage
A method of securing funds by placing them in a cold wallet; a type of wallet that is never connected to the internet.
See Also
Cold Wallet
A wallet that is used to secure assets offline. This wallet is permanently disconnected from the internet, and not vulnerable to attacks which rely on an active internet connection.
See Also
Common Knowledge Base
A layer 1 proof of work blockchain that provides a foundation of decentralized trust for the Nervos Network.
Synonyms
Not To Be Confused With
See Also
Common Knowledge Byte
The native token of the Nervos layer 1 blockchain, the Common Knowledge Base.
Common Knowledge Byte is often abbreviated as CKByte or CKB.
Owning a CKByte entitles the holder to store one byte of data on the Nervos CKB.
Synonyms
Not To Be Confused With
See Also
Confirmation
A process where a transaction has been accepted and verified by the network and included in a block.
See Also
Consensus
Consensus is a state of agreement between the participants (nodes) of a decentralized network.
See Also
Cryptocurrency
Digital currency that relies on mathematics and cryptography to secure funds and facilitate transfers from one party to another.
See Also
Cryptographic Signature
A concise piece of proof data which is used to prove that the creator of the signature has ownership of a specific private key by "signing" a unique piece of data. This signing process proves ownership of the private keys without revealing the private keys.
Synonyms
Cryptography
The study and practice of using mathematics to secure communications and information.
See Also
Cycles
The number of RISC-V computational cycles required by a script to execute.
This is a similar concept to Ethereum's Gas.
See Also
DAO
Short for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. A DAO is an organization run by the rules of a computer program. A DAO is controlled by stakeholders, and may not have a physical location, therefore reducing the influence of governments.
See Also
Decentralization
The process of spreading the responsibility and ownership between multiple parties in order to mitigate the risks associated with a single party being in control.
See Also
Digital Asset
A digital asset is an individual piece of data that has value, or represents another entity that has value.
Digital assets are most commonly represented as tokens, which may be used as digital currency or represent physical items such as real estate.
Synonyms
Digital Currency
A type of currency that primarily exists digitally over the internet. Physical representations of the currency, in the form of cards, bills, or coins, may exist, but are secondary mediums.
See Also
Distributed
A system where components are spread across multiple nodes to parallelize workloads, add redundancy, or eliminate single points of failure.
See Also
Double Spend
A double spend is a fraudlent action where a cryptocurrency token is spent in two places at once, effectively allowing the attacker to spend more tokens than they actually own.
The potential for a double spend is based on network synchronization delays. These problems are automatically resolved over time, which is why most blockchains set guidelines on the minimum number of confirmations that should be accumulated before considering a transaction final.
See Also
Epoch
An epoch is a period of time for a set of blocks.
In Nervos an epoch is approximately four hours.
See Also
First-Class Assets
A unique property of CKB wherein ownership of a Cell, and the data contained within, is not assigned by the issuer, developer, or smart contract. The user owns the cell and is responsible for costs associated with state rent.
See Also
Fungible Token
Any token where every unit has identical characteristics and is interchangeable with other tokens of the same type.
Fungible tokens represent the vast majority of cryptocurrencies.
See Also
Full Node
A node that contains a complete copy of the entire blockchain history.
Synonyms
Hardware Wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet that uses a physical hardware component to store private keys. These devices are permanently disconnected from the internet and typically interface with computers only for specific activities such as sending funds.
A hardware wallet is a form of cold wallet.
See Also
Hash Rate
A measure of the speed at which a computer is able to complete cryptographic operations. These operations are known as "hashing", and are often measured in hashes per second.
See Also
Height
A shorthand name for block height.
Synonyms
Light Client
A type of node software with much lower resource requirements than a full node. A light client allows for the most common basic functions, but does not have advanced functionality.
Light clients do not contain a copy of the full blockchain or full state. They typically rely on full nodes in the network in order to operate.
See Also
Mainnet
The Nervos CKB public blockchain.
The name of the Nervos CKB Mainnet is Lina.
Synonyms
Not To Be Confused With
Mempool
A shorthand name for memory pool. A "waiting area" on full nodes for transactions that have been broadcasted to the network but have not yet been confirmed on the blockchain.
See Also
Micro-State
A small piece of state that is isolated and often able to be acted upon independently without knowing the total state of the network.
On Nervos, micro-state is represented by a Cell.
Synonyms
See Also
Miner
A miner is a computer that provides computing power to validate transactions and create the blocks in the blockchain.
See Also
Miner Fee
Another term for transaction fee.
Synonyms
Mining
The practice of providing computational power to validate transactions and create blocks in the blockchain in exchange for a mining reward.
See Also
Mining Reward
Native tokens that are paid to a miner in exchange for providing the computational resources required for mining.
See Also
Native Token
A token type which is used for paying fees and rewards on a public blockchain. This token is often unique as it is the only token that must exist on the blockchain in order to operate.
On Nervos the native token is the CKByte.
See Also
NC-MAX
The consensus algorithm used on the Nervos blockchain.
See Also
Neighbor
A node that is directly connected to another node in the blockchain peer to peer network.
See Also
Nervos Blockchain
The layer 1 blockchain of the Nervos Network known as the Common Knowledge Base.
Synonyms
Nervos DAO
A system that allows users to lock CKBytes for a period of time to earn rewards from Secondary Issuance. This process is similar to staking on other platforms.
See Also
Network Hash Rate
A measurement of the total computational processing power which is dedicated to providing security to the network.
See Also
- Hash Rate
- [Miner]
Node
A computer that is running the blockchain node software, which allows them to participate in the blockchain's peer to peer network.
Synonyms
See Also
Non-Fungible Token
Any token where every unit within the same type can have different characteristics, making each token unique.
Non-fungible tokens are often used for digital representation of unique real-world items, such as real-estate.
See Also
Open Source
A piece of software where source code is freely available for examination or alteration by any third-party.
See Also
P2P
A shortname name for peer to peer.
Synonyms
Paper Wallet
A form of storing a recovery phrase or private keys offline by printing them on a piece of paper. This document would then be stored by traditional means in a secured location of the user's choosing, such as a safe.
See Also
Payment Address
A string of letters and numbers that cryptocurrency and assets can be sent to and from.
Nervos addresses always begin with the letters "ckb" and are 46 characters in length.
A payment address is designed to be shared with others, similar to an email address.
Synonyms
Peer to Peer
A type of network where the nodes communicate directly with each other instead of going through an intermediary centralized server.
Synonyms
See Also
Proof of Work
A type of consensus algorithm that requires high computational resources in order to produce answers to cryptographic puzzles in return for a mining reward paid in native tokens.
These answers used to produce blocks and process transactions in a public blockchain. The computational difficulty itself is the basis for security in the public blockchain because it is extremely costly to replicate.
See Also
Proof of Stake
A type of consensus algorithm where the participants of the network cast votes to reach agreement on the creation of blocks and processing of transactions. The strength of each vote is weighted by the amount of native token owned by the voter.
See Also
Propagation
A shorthand name for Block Propagation.
Synonyms
Private Key
A string of letters and numbers that is used to prove ownership of cryptocurrency or digital assets, allowing them to be sent to other payment addresses. A private key is normally stored in a wallet.
A private key must be kept secret at all times. A private key works similarly to a key to a safe containing your cryptocurrency. Anyone with the key has the ability to open the safe and take the contents.
See Also
Pruned Node
A node which contains only part of the blockchain history.
See Also
Shannon
A fractional denomination of CKBytes. One CKByte is equal to 100,000,000 Shannons.
A Shannon is the equivalent of a Bitcoin Satoshi.
See Also
Signature
A shorthand name for cryptographic signature.
Synonyms
State
Data stored on the blockchain. In most contexts this this means current data and excludes historical data.
See Also
Testnet
An alternate public blockchain used for testing purposes that is running the same or similar software as the Mainnet. All tokens and data on testnets have no value.
The name of the Nervos Testnet is Aggron.
Synonyms
Not To Be Confused With
Tip
A shorthand name for tip block.
Synonyms
Tip Block
The most recent block to be confirmed in a blockchain. The tip block has the highest block height in the blockchain.
Synonyms
See Also
Transaction
An entry in the blockchain that describes any change in state.
See Also
Transaction Fee
A fee which is paid in the native token to miners in exchange for processing a transaction.
Synonyms
See Also
Token
A single unit of information used to facilitate a transaction on a blockchain.
See Also
UDT
An abbreviation for User-Defined Token.
Synonyms
Unconfirmed
The state of a transaction that has not yet been confirmed. An unconfirmed transaction is not finalized and cannot be guaranteed.
Synonyms
See Also
Unconfirmed Transaction
A transaction that has not yet been confirmed. An unconfirmed transaction is not finalized and cannot be guaranteed.
Synonyms
See Also
User-Defined Token
A custom token created with properties defined by the user. In normal usage, this most commonly refers to fungible tokens.
A User-Defined Token is usually referred to by its abbreviation, UDT.
Synonyms
See Also
Wallet
A piece of software used to manage a user's private keys and payment addresses. A wallet allows a user to send and receive cryptocurrency payments. Some wallets also incorporate functionality to manage digital assets.
See Also
Economics Glossary
Base Issuance
The creation of new CKBytes through temporary inflation that is paid to miners through Base Rewards.
Base Issuance is paid for by using a fixed and decreasing inflation schedule. Approximately every four years the amount is halved until eventually stopping when the cap of 33.6 billion CKBytes have been issued.
See Also
Base Reward
A subsidy paid to miners in CKBytes for providing the compute and storage requirements required for processing transactions and persisting data on Nervos.
Base Rewards are created from Base Issuance and will decrease over time until eventually ending.
See Also
Commit Reward
A reward paid to miners in CKBytes for committing a previously proposed transaction. After the transaction has been committed it is confirmed.
See Also
Fiat Currency
Fiat currency is a form of money that has no intrinsic value. The value of fiat currency is derived from the support of the governing body that maintains it, and by the agreed value by parties that transact with it.
See Also
Heavy Asset Problem
A common problem found in multi-asset blockchain platforms where the value of the assets stored on the chain gains significant value but the native token of the chain does not. This raises the incentive to attack the the network, but does not increase the security because the value of the native token is what is used to secure the network.
See Also
Liquidity
The ability for an asset to be bought or sold easily without causing a significant change in the current market price.
See Also
Proposal Reward
A reward paid to miners in CKBytes for proposing an unconfirmed transaction. After the transaction has been proposed it becomes eligible to be committed.
See Also
Secondary Issuance
The creation of new CKBytes through limited and decreasing inflation that is paid to miners through Secondary Rewards.
Secondary Issuance follows a fixed inflation schedule of 1.344 billion CKBytes per year. This amount does not change. Unlike Base Issuance, Secondary Issuance does not affect everyone on the network. It is a small and targeted inflation from users that occupy space on Nervos or hold their CKBytes outside of the Nervos DAO.
See Also
- Base Issuance
- CKByte
- Nervos DAO
- Secondary Reward
- State
- Crypto-Economics RFC on Nervos Network GitHub
Secondary Reward
A subsidy paid to miners in CKBytes for providing the compute and storage requirements required for processing transactions and persisting data on Nervos.
Secondary Rewards are created from Secondary Issuance, and continuously pay miners for the preservation of state data contained on the blockchain.
See Also
Starving Layer 1 Problem
A scenario that can arise in multi-layer blockchain platforms where the vast majority of the transaction traffic moves from layer 1 to layer 2, taking the vast majority of transaction fees with it. If layer 1 relies exclusively on transaction fees to support the security of the platform, it may end up not having enough incentives available to properly secure it.
See Also
State Rent
A recurring fee that is paid to persist and secure state data.
On Nervos, Secondary Issuance is used to facilitate the paying of State Rent by the users who occupy the space on the Nervos blockchain.
See Also
Store of Assets
A platform which is designed to safely preserve multiple types of assets, each of which could be a store of value.
See Also
Store of Value
An asset that is purchased to retain purchasing power in the long-term.
A good store of value either match or outpace the inflation rate of fiat currency, and has a reasonable amount of liquidity, allowing the asset to be easily sold.
See Also
Tail Emission
A type of reward that is paid to miners through a fixed amount of inflation.
See Also
Targeted Inflation
A form of inflation that only affects a specific subset of users.
Nervos uses Secondary Issuance to create targeted inflation on users who occupy space on the Nervos blockchain to pay State Rent. Long-term holders of CKBytes have the option of locking them in the Nervos DAO, which acts and an inflation shelter.
See Also
- CKByte
- Secondary Issuance
- Nervos Blockchain
- Nervos DAO
- Crypto-Economics RFC on Nervos Network GitHub
Tragedy of the Commons
A situation in a system where the participants act in accordance with their own self interest and deplete or destroy a shared resource through their collective action.
See Also
Tragedy of the Security Commons
A situation that can emerge on multi-asset blockchain platforms where asset tokens rely on the storage and security of the blockchain platform, but do not contribute back to the platform. As the number of assets that "ride for free" increases, so does the burden placed on the underlying blockchain platform. If the assets do not contribute to the underlying platform, the available security may not properly support the network.
See Also
Tragedy of the Storage Commons
A situation that can emerge on incentivized blockchain platforms where mining rewards are paid for inclusion of data to the blockchain, but no rewards exist for the long-term persistance of the blockchain data. As the size of the chain grows, so do the costs associated with persisting the data. If there is no direct incentive for persisting data, fewer and fewer nodes will do so. Eventually, too few nodes will be available to properly support the network.
See Also
Technical Glossary
Active Cell
A Cell in the current state of CKB. Active cells can be used as inputs to transactions.
Synonyms
See Also
Aggron
The name of the main public testnet for Nervos CKB.
- ckb version: >= v0.32.0 (latest stable is recommended)
- genesis hash: 0x10639e0895502b5688a6be8cf69460d76541bfa4821629d86d62ba0aae3f9606
- launched at: 2020-05-22 04:00:00 UTC
Synonyms
Not To Be Confused With
Animagus
A framework layer that runs on top of Nervos CKB which provides an easy way to query for account balances without having to go through the Cell Collection process.
See Also
Args
Args is short for arguments, and is data provided to a Lock Script or Type Script within a Cell. This is nearly identical to arguments provided to a normal command-line application.
Arguments are stored as part of the Cell when it is created.
See Also
Axon
A layer 2 side-chain of the Nervos CKB developed by the Nervos Core Team. Axon provides high-performance smart contract execution while utilizing Nervos CKB as a trust layer.
See Also
Blake2b
A general-purpose cryptographic hashing algorithm that can create a succinct data fingerprint for any type of data.CKB uses blake2b as the default hash algorithm.
See Also
Block Subsidy
A payment that is made in the native currency of the blockchain that is paid to to miners for providing the computational resources create a block and secure the blockchain.
The subsidy consists is the portion of the total block reward that is issued out of inflation for creating the block, but does not include any additional transaction fees that may be paid on top.
Synonyms
BLS
A cryptographic signature scheme for signing and verification.
BLS is short for Boneh–Lynn–Shacham.
See Also
Boxer
A lightweight Rust library for verifying the Nervos layer 1 blockchain, the Common Knowledge Base.
See Also
Cell Collection
The process of gathering cells that meet certain criteria.
For example: To find the balance of a particular account, all active cells for the address would need to be collected.
See Also
Cellbase
The transaction in each block that is responsible for the minting of new CKBytes.
This is the equivalent of a coinbase transaction in Bitcoin.
See Also
Ckbhash
CKB uses blake2b as the default hash algorithm with following configurations:
- output digest size:
32
- personalization:
ckb-default-hash
ckbhash
is used to denote the blake2b hash with the configurations above, there are example and test vectors in python 3:
import hashlib
import unittest
def ckbhash():
return hashlib.blake2b(digest_size=32, person=b'ckb-default-hash')
class TestCKBBlake2b(unittest.TestCase):
def test_empty_message(self):
hasher = ckbhash()
hasher.update(b'')
self.assertEqual('44f4c69744d5f8c55d642062949dcae49bc4e7ef43d388c5a12f42b5633d163e', hasher.hexdigest())
if __name__ == '__main__':
unittest.main()
See Also
CKB Merkle Tree
CKB Merkle Tree is a CBMT( Complete Binary Merkle Tree ) using following merge function:
ckbhash(left || right)
ckbhash is the hash function,
||
denotes binary concatenation.
See Also
Code Hash
A field in a Cell that contains a hash value which could refer to a specific piece of data, or a specific cell referenced by Type ID.
See Also
Commit
The process of taking a proposed transaction and adding it to the blockchain. After the transaction has been committed it is confirmed.
Miners are incentivized to commit transactions by being paid a commit reward.
See Also
Commitment Zone
Section of the block that contains transaction commitments. The commitment zone can only contain valid transactions which have appeared in the proposal zone of one of the previous 2 to 10 blocks.
See Also
Consume
The process of using a Live Cell as an input to a transaction.
The process of consumption marks the Live Cell as a Dead Cell. This is the equivalent of marking a UTXO as spent in Bitcoin.
See Also
Crypto Primitives
Well-established, low-level cryptographic algorithm commonly used to build out a cryptographic protocol.
See Also
Data
In Nervos specific contexts, data may refer to the data structure within a Cell. This structure is used to hold any form of information that needs to be stored on the Nervos blockchain.
In more general contexts, data may refer to any form of information.
See Also
Dead Cell
A cell that has been used as an input to a previous transaction and is consumed.
A dead cell cannot be used as an input to a new transaction, nor can it be used as a dependency. It is effectively destroyed and removed from the active state of the network.
A dead cell is the equivalent of a "spent UTXO" in Bitcoin.
Synonyms
See Also
Dep Group
A method for referencing multiple dependencies which are commonly used together using a single dependency field.
See Also
Dep Type
A field that specifies the type of the dependency.
See Also
Deps
A shorthand name for dependencies.
Synonyms
Dependencies
Cells that are referenced in a transaction. Cells that are referenced as dependencies are read-only and made available to any Scripts executing within the transaction. Dependencies are not consumed.
Dependencies are commonly referred to as deps.
Synonyms
See Also
Duktape
Duktape is an embeddable Javascript engine, with a focus on portability and compact footprint.
Duktape is used to run Javascript based smart contracts on Nervos.
See Also
Difficulty
A measurement of how difficult it is to solve the Proof of Work cryptographic puzzle required to create a block.
Networks automatically adjust the difficulty to control the speed at which blocks are generated as mining participants enter and exit the network.
See Also
Diviner
A deterministic testing framework for Rust.
See Also
Eaglesong
The proof of work function used for mining on Nervos CKB.
See Also
ERC20
An Ethereum token standard for basic fungible tokens.
An SUDT on Nervos is the equivalent of Ethereum tokens standards ERC20 or ERC777.
See Also
ERC721
An Ethereum token standard for non-fungible tokens.
See Also
ERC777
An updated Ethereum token standard for basic fungible tokens that is backwards compatible with ERC20.
An SUDT on Nervos is the equivalent of Ethereum tokens standards ERC20 or ERC777.
See Also
ERC1155
An Ethereum token standard that supports the creation any number of fungible or non-fungible tokens on a single contract.
See Also
Generator
A program that is used to create transactions that can be broadcast to the Nervos CKB network.
See Also
Genesis Block
The first block on a blockchain. The genesis block is unique because it does not contain a reference to the previous block because it is the first.
See Also
Godwoken
A tool that provides a programmable layer on Nervos CKB that emulates the account model used by other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum.
See Also
Governance Script
A Type Script which defines the monetary policy of a User Defined Token (UDT).
See Also
Governance Script Hash
A Blake2b hash of a Type Script which is used as an identifier for the Script when referenced by a Cell.
Synonyms
See Also
Historical Cell
An alternative term for Dead Cell.
Synonyms
See Also
Indexer
An application or library that keeps track of live Cells that match criteria specified by the developer or user.
See Also
Input
A Live Cell that is used in a transaction. If the transaction is accepted by the network, the Live Cell will be consumed, and marked as a Dead Cell.
See Also
Keyper
A specification of how to manage wallet Lock Scripts which apply to a specific user.
See Also
Late Spawning
When a node joins a blockchain network for the first time after the network has already been in operation for a period of time.
A network is said to support late spawning if that participant can download and verify the entire blockchain without having to trust any of the participants in the network to feed them unaltered data.
See Also
Layer 1
A proof of work blockchain known as the Common Knowledge Base (CKB) that serves as the base layer for the Nervos Network.
Synonyms
See Also
Layer 2
Any framework or protocol that is built on top of and dependent on a layer 1 blockchain.
Layer 2 systems often address different concerns than layer 1, allowing for a wider range of use cases while directly inheriting many of benefits of layer 1.
See Also
Lina
The name of public Mainnet of the Nervos CKB.
Synonyms
Not To Be Confused With
See Also
Live Cell
A Cell that has not been consumed and is available for use.
This is similar to an unspent transaction output (UTXO) in Bitcoin.
Synonyms
See Also
Lock Script
A Script that enforces access and ownership of a Cell. This Script controls who has permission to use the Cell as an input.
See Also
Lock Script Hash
A Blake2b hash of a Lock Script which is used as an identifier for the Script when referenced by a Cell.
See Also
Long Address
An address format used on Nervos that includes the full code hash of the lock script which is associated with it.
See Also
Mainnet
The Nervos CKB public blockchain.The name of the Nervos CKB Mainnet is Lina.
- ckb version: >= v0.25.2 (latest stable is recommended)
- genesis hash: 0x92b197aa1fba0f63633922c61c92375c9c074a93e85963554f5499fe1450d0e5
- launched at: 2019-11-15 21:11:00 UTC
Synonyms
Not To Be Confused With
Minting
The process of creating of new tokens.
See Also
Molecule
A serialization framework for encoding data which is used extensively on the Nervos blockchain.
See Also
Muta
A framework used to create highly customizable layer 2 blockchain implementations on Nervos.
See Also
Nervos CKB
The layer 1 blockchain of the Nervos Network, the Common Knowledge Base.
Nervos CKB is often referred to as the Nervos Blockchain.
Synonyms
See Also
Off-Chain Computation
A programming model where all computation is done off-chain to reduce the burden on the nodes in the network and provide higher levels of scalability.
Nervos uses off-chain computation and on-chain verification.
See Also
Off-Chain State
A programming model where the data that represents the state of an application is not stored on the blockchain, or is not accessible by on-chain smart contracts.
See Also
On-Chain Computation
A programming model where all computation by smart contracts is done on-chain every node on the network simultaneously.
Ethereum uses on-chain computation.
See Also
On-Chain State
A programming model where the data that represents the state of an application is stored on the blockchain and is accessible by on-chain smart contracts.
Nervos provides on-chain state for all smart contracts.
See Also
On-Chain Verification
A programming model where all computation is done off-chain to reduce the burden on the nodes in the network, but verification of the resulting data is done on-chain to enforce the smart contract rules created by the developer.
Nervos uses off-chain computation and on-chain verification.
See Also
Open Transaction
A signed piece of a transaction that is incomplete and invalid on its own. When combined with other signed transaction pieces can form a complete transaction which can be processed.
One use of open transactions is to create the functionality required for a trustless decentalized exchange.
See Also
Orphan
A shorthand name for Orphan Block.
Synonyms
Orphan Block
A valid block that was found simultaneously with another valid block by another miner, but was not selected by network because it arrived after the other block.
Orphan blocks are expected to occur under normal operation and do not become a problem unless they occur too frequently.
On Nervos, orphan blocks are better described as Uncles.
Synonyms
See Also
Orphan Rate
A measure of the speed at which Orphan blocks occur within the blockchain network.
See Also
Outpoint
A particular output Cell in a transaction.
See Also
Output
A Live Cell that is created in a transaction.
See Also
Overlord
A byzantine fault tollerant consensus algorithm designed by Nervos for Huobi which can support thousands of transactions per second.
See Also
Polyjuice
An Ethereum compatible layer that provides account model functionality on top of Nervos' Cell Model.
See Also
Proposal Zone
Section of the block that contains transaction proposals.
See Also
Propose
The process of taking an unconfirmed transaction out of the mempool and proposing it for commitment. A transaction is not confirmed until after it has been committed.
Miners are incentivized to propose transactions by being paid a proposal reward.
See Also
RISC-V
An open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) for general computing.
RISC-V is the instruction set used by the CKB-VM.
See Also
Schnorr Signature
A cryptographic signature scheme for signing and verification.
See Also
Script
A program that executes on the CKB-VM. A Script can be one of two types:
- Lock Script - Used to control ownership and access to a Cell.
- Type Script - Used to control how a Cell is used in a transaction.
A Script is a binary executable in the ELF format for the RISC-V architecture.
See Also
Seed Cell
A design pattern on Nervos from creating unique identifiers used to create unforgeable assets.
See Also
Shannon
A fractional denomination of CKBytes. One CKByte is equal to 100,000,000 Shannons.
A Shannon is the equivalent of a Bitcoin Satoshi.
See Also
Short Address
An address format on Nervos that does not include the code hash of the associated lock script, and instead uses one of many commonly used lock scripts.
The short address format is the most common address format used, and is often referred to as simply "address".
Synonyms
See Also
Simple UDT
A standard that defines a the most basic implementation of a UDT fungible token on Nervos.
A Simple UDT is often referred to by its abbreviation, SUDT.
An SUDT on Nervos is the equivalent of Ethereum tokens standards ERC20 and ERC777.
Synonyms
See Also
Since
A field on a Cell which can contain an optional value that prevents consumption before a certain block timestamp or a block number.
See Also
SPV
An abbreviation for Simplified Payment Verification. A protocol for using a blockchain cryptocurrency without having to operate a full node.
SPV clients require far less data to be stored, but also must requires the trust of the network clients it is connected to directly.
See Also
SPV Wallet
A light-weight cryptocurrency wallet that uses the SPV protocol.
See Also
SUDT
An abbreviation for Simple UDT.
Synonyms
Testnet
An alternate public blockchain used for testing purposes that is running the same or similar software as the Mainnet. All tokens and data on testnets have no value.The name of the Nervos CKB Testnet is Aggron.
- ckb version: >= v0.32.0 (latest stable is recommended)
- genesis hash: 0x10639e0895502b5688a6be8cf69460d76541bfa4821629d86d62ba0aae3f9606
- launched at: 2020-05-22 04:00:00 UTC
Synonyms
Not To Be Confused With
Transaction Hash
Transaction is serialized via molecule in CKB. Its schema is:
table Transaction {
raw: RawTransaction,
witnesses: BytesVec,
}
Transaction hash is generated by the serialized raw
structure through ckbhash.
See Also
Transaction Witness Hash
Transaction is serialized via molecule in CKB. Its schema is:
table Transaction {
raw: RawTransaction,
witnesses: BytesVec,
}
Transaction witness hash is generated by the serialized transaction through ckbhash.
See Also
Transaction Root
The field transactions_root
in header is
ckbhash(T || W)
ckbhash is the hash function,
||
denotes binary concatenation.
T is the root of a CKB Merkle Tree, which items are the transaction hashes of all the transactions in the block.
W is also the root of a CKB Merkle Tree, but the items are the Transaction Witness Hash of all the transactions in the block.
See Also
Type Script
A Script that enforces the rules that must be followed in a transaction for a Cell to be consumed as an input or for a Cell to be created as an output.
See Also
Type Script Hash
A Blake2b hash of a Type Script which is used as an identifier for the Script when referenced by a Cell.
See Also
Type ID
A unique identifier for asset types on Nervos. This idenfier is based on the Type Script and Arguments of a Cell.
See Also
Uncle
A valid block that was found simultaneously with another valid block by another miner, but was not selected by network because it arrived after the other block.
Uncles are paid a reduced block reward when they are found and reported.
On Nervos, Uncles are tracked by consensus to adjust the block interval of the network.
Synonyms
See Also
Uncle Rate
See Also
Validator
A Script that is used to ensure that a transaction created by a Generator is valid.
Validators are Scripts that run within the CKB-VM, and are either Lock Scripts or Type Scripts.
See Also
Witness
A set of cryptographic signatures that contains the data required to prove authorization to the resources used in a transaction.
See Also
Zk-SNARK
A form of cryptographic proof, that when used in cryptocurrencies, allows for privacy features which do not reveal the amounts or participants in transactions.
Zk-SNARKs require a trusted setup, but are otherwise trustless.
See Also
Zk-STARK
A form of cryptographic proof, that when used in cryptocurrencies, allows for privacy features which do not reveal the amounts or participants in transactions.
Unlike Zk-SNARKs, Zk-STARKs do not require a trusted setup.