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glossary.md

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📖 Glossary

Application

The base consumer of the decentralized infrastructure of Pocket Network.

Application’s stake POKT into the protocol in order to access the decentralized infrastructure.

Application Authentication Token (AAT)

An Application Authentication Token (AAT) is needed for each client to authorize the use of an allocated “throughput.”

Application Authentication Tokens are similar in function to JSON Web Tokens (JWT) and provide security guarantees for the use of the service.

An AAT is generated after a client acquires & stakes POKT for an application.

There are two design patterns recommended for AAT usage:

  • Optimizing for Safety: __ A simple backend server that distributes signed AAT’s using the clients Pocket Account. Though this pattern is of higher effort for the Application, it provides the highest security guarantee around their AAT
  • Optimizing for Performance: Embed a token production system within the Application code. This guarantees the smoothest UX for the clients and easiest setup for the Application. However, reverse engineering a source code level token generator can be trivial if obfuscation methods are not applied. The upside to this approach is not having the need to have an additional component in the Application that generates the AAT dynamically while keeping the Application private key secure.

Block Hash

The SHA3-256 hash of a Block.

Jail

A Pocket Validator Node can be Jailed for 1 of 2 reasons:

  1. Fails to produce min_signed_per_window amount of blocks over a signed_blocks_window. When jailed because of this reason, a Pocket Validator Node is Slashed a slash_fraction_downtime% of their Stake.
  2. For Double Signing a Block. When jailed because of this reason, a Pocket Validator Node is Slashed a slash_fraction_double_sign% of their Stake.

When a Pocket Validator Node becomes Jailed, it remains in the Staked list of Pocket Validator Nodes, however it becomes ineligible to be selected for Block Production or participating in Sessions. In order to become Unjailed again, and after waiting downtime_jail_duration nano-seconds, a Node Unjail transaction must be sent to the Pocket Network, and upon approval, the Pocket Validator Node will become Unjailed again.

If a Pocket Validator Node is left jailed for max_jailed_blocks blocks, it will be Force Unstaked.

POKT

The native cryptocurrency to Pocket Network.

Relay

A Relay is a blockchain API request and response transmitted through the Pocket Network.

A Relay Request is broken down into 3 sections:

  • Request Payload
  • Metadata
  • Proof (of Relay)

A Relay Response is broken down into 2 sections:

  • Response Payload
  • Servicer Signature

Requests are signed by the Client of the Application and responses are signed by the servicing Validator.

This 1 for 1 signature scheme enables the protocol to validate all parties that participate in the servicing cycle.

Relay Chain

A single database instance, typically a blockchain, provided by a Validator that makes up the Pocket Network decentralized infrastructure.

Relay Evidence

Provable evidence of a Relay completed, backed by digital signatures from an Application client.

ServiceURI

The endpoint where Validators host the Pocket RPC.

A static URI (or IP) that you have assigned to your node, which applications can use to send relays to your node, NOT your blockchain node URL.

Session

The relationship between an Application and the Validator(s) that service it at any point in time.

Every Application will only have one single Session per Relay Chain it is staked for. Meaning following an Application stake event, there will always be a corresponding Session for the Application for each Relay Chain until it unstakes.

Session Block

Some number of blocks, marking session beginning/ends.

Validator

Validators are responsible for committing new blocks in the blockchain. These validators participate in the consensus protocol by broadcasting votes which contain cryptographic signatures signed by each validator’s private key.

Validators stake POKT into the protocol to participate in Servicing and Consensus.