Technical Speak

Good to know: These are some common terms from around Dotsama that you'll hear pretty frequently. It's OK not to fully understand them (I certainly don't), most are pretty complex stuff, but it's good to at least have a rough idea.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #

A

B

BABE - Blind Assignment for Blockchain Extension. BABE is the engine selects authors for each block, and then produces those blocks. Can be used in conjunction with GRANDPA.

BEEFY - Bridge Efficiency Enabling Finality Yielder. A protocol that (in conjunction with GRANDPA) helps connect non-substrate blockchains to the Polkadot ecosystem.

C

Collator - Collators collect transactions from their parachain and aggregate them to pass along to Relay Chain Validators.

D

E

F

Fungible - Mutually interchangeable, non-unique. Any one can be replaced for any other. Polkadot is fungible, any one DOT can be replaced with any other DOT, and you will have exactly the same thing.

G

GRANDPA - GHOST-based Recursive Ancestor Deriving Prefix Agreement. It's a protocol that decides which block, which changes are final, before recording them to the blockchain.

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

NFT - Non-fungible token. A one-of-a-kind token, able to refer directly to a unique item. That item can be a digital asset, like digital art, or a real world asset, like a land deed or physical artwork. People often think that owning an NFT is owning a JPG, but in actuality, that NFT is simply a token that contains information about where to find that JPG. But because it is unique and its transaction history can be verified on the blockchain, ownership of that token represents a clear path of ownership of the art that it is tied to. In short, an NFT is a certificate of authenticity and ownership, rolled into one.

Nominator - You, if you stake. Your stake is nominating trustworthy Validators, who are responsible for the security of the relay chain.

O

P

Parachain - Sovereign blockchains plugged into the Relay Chain that can have their own tokens and determine their own functionality. Parachain slots are secured via Parachain Slot Auction.

Parathread - Similar to Parachains, but pay-as-you-go connectivity to the Relay Chain.

Polkadot.js - Native wallet. Super powerful, but not very user friendly.

Q

R

Relay Chain - The core of Polkadot and Kusama. It is responsible for the network's shared security, Proof-of-Stake consensus, and cross-chain interoperability (XCM), which allows parachains to communicate with one another safely, without the security risk of bridges.

S

T

U

V

Validator - The person you stake with. They validate proofs from Collators and participate in consensus with other Validators to ensure data transmitted across the Relay Chain is accurate.

W

X

XCM - Cross-chain messaging. The messaging format used by parachains to transact with one another across the Relay Chain.