Glossary
Glossary Sections
General Glossary
Account
A kind of basic object in distributed ledger used to keep the balance and other information of users.
Address
A label consists of string of letters and numbers that anonymously represents user's identity on chain. Crypto assets can be sent to and/or from addresses. CKB address packages Lock Script into a single line, verifiable, and human read friendly format. A single public-private key pair can generate multiple Lock Scripts, consequently multiple addresses.
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Asset
A piece of data that has value or that represents an entity having value.
Synonyms
Block
A grouping of transactions, marked with a timestamp, and a fingerprint of the previous block. The block header is hashed to produce a proof of work, thereby validating the transactions. Valid blocks are added to the main blockchain by network consensus.
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Block Height
Block height is the total number of blocks that have been confirmed on the blockchain, also used to identify a unique block when specifying a particular block height, as there is always an exact block at any block height.
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Block Interval
Also known as Block Time. Block interval is the length of time it takes to create a new block in a cryptocurrency blockchain. Block interval is the measure of the time it takes the miners or validators within a network to verify transactions within one block and produce a new block in that blockchain. The block interval is variable on Nervos blockchain.
The block interval on the Bitcoin blockchain is approximately every 10 minutes. The block interval on Nervos is variable, but is usually under 10 seconds.
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Block Propagation
The process of synchronizing a new block to the majority of full nodes in the network. Block propagation is a well-known bottleneck that prevents Bitcoin from scaling.
Block propagation time is an average time that is needed for the new block to reach the majority of nodes in the network. Long block propagation delay reduces the node's resistance against 51% attacks.
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Block Reward
The amount of cryptocurrency credited to a miner's account after the miner successfully adds a block of transactions to the blockchain.
In Nervos CKB, block rewards are the CKBytes credited to a miner's account after a block is successfully added to CKB by the miner.
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Block Time
Alternatively referred to as Block Interval.
Synonyms
Blockchain
A data structure maintaining a growing list of records, organized as a chain of blocks. Each block, apart from the first one, is cryptographically linked to the previous block, thus creating a chain-like structure.
The cryptographic link ensures any party with the last block can verify that none of the historical data is modified after the creation of this block.
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BLS Signature
A cryptographic signature scheme for signing and verification. BLS is short for Boneh–Lynn–Shacham.
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Broadcast
Blocks are sent to all nodes in a blockchain network.
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Capacity
The maximum space (in bytes) that a Cell can occupy on the Nervos CKB.
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Cell
Cells are the primary state units in CKB, within them users can include arbitrary states. All data on Nervos CKB is stored in Cells.
A Cell has 4 fields: capacity
, data
, type
and lock
.
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Cell Model
A representation of how state is managed on Nervos CKB. The Cell Model is a more generic state model than either Bitcoin's UTXO or Ethereum's account model.
The Cell Model is a new construction that combines many of the advantages of Ethereum's account model with the asset ownership and proof-based verification properties of Bitcoin's UTXO model.
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Censorship Resistance
Censorship resistance in blockchain generally means that it is difficult for a malicious party to prevent the blockchain from confirming a set of transactions generated by honest users.
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
CKB-VM is a crypto-agnostic virtual machine, a RISC-V instruction set based VM for executing both on-chain and off-chain code.
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Code Hash
A field in a Cell which contains a hash value that can refer to a specific piece of data, or a specific Cell referenced by Type ID.
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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.