Glossary

Glossary

Bifrost-Specific Terms

Term	Definition
vToken	Voucher Token — Bifrost's liquid staking token (LST). Minted through the SLP protocol. Yield-bearing: rewards accrue via exchange rate appreciation, not token quantity increase.
SLP	Staking Liquidity Protocol — the main on-chain pallet (module) used for staking logic.
SLPx	Extension of SLP enabling cross-chain minting and redemption of vTokens from other chains without requiring users to bridge manually.
SALP	Slot Auction Liquidity Protocol — the main pallet used for parachain auction & crowdloan logic.
BNC	Bifrost Native Coin — the governance and utility token of Bifrost.
vBNC	Liquid-staked BNC. Staking rewards accrue in vBNC's exchange rate.
bbBNC	Buy Back BNC — Bifrost's revenue-sharing escrow token. Obtained by locking vBNC. Non-transferable. Grants protocol revenue share, governance rights, and farming boosts.
vToken Vault	Bifrost's slash insurance pool, funded by 5% of protocol revenue.
Ready Pool	An order pool that accumulates and matches mint and redeem orders for each vToken before executing cross-chain operations.
Aggregator Module	A module that simulates arbitrage to maintain the DEX exchange rate of vToken close to the protocol conversion rate.
System Staking (SST)	A mechanism that stakes idle Bifrost parachain treasury tokens as vTokens to generate additional protocol revenue.
Loop Stake	Bifrost's leverage staking product — performs recursive borrow/lend operations with DOT/KSM and vDOT/vKSM to amplify staking yields.
Omni LS	Bifrost's cross-chain liquid staking interface — allows users to stake from EVM chains (Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, etc.) without manually bridging.
RSP	Reward-Share Program — Bifrost's partner revenue sharing program.
VBL	Validator Boost List — a governance-curated list of prioritized validators.

Polkadot Ecosystem Terms

Term	Definition
Collator	A node that maintains a parachain by collecting transactions and producing state transition proofs for validators.
Crowdloan	A mechanism for parachains to temporarily source tokens for winning a parachain slot auction. Tokens are returned after the lease period. (Note: Polkadot parachain auctions have been replaced by Coretime as of 2024.)
Era	A period (typically 24 hours on Polkadot, 6 hours on Kusama) at the end of which validator sets are recalculated and staking rewards are distributed.
Governance / OpenGov	Polkadot's on-chain governance system. Stakeholders vote on network changes.
Interoperability	The ability for systems to exchange and use information — often used to mean "cross-chain".
Liquid Staking	Staking tokens while retaining liquidity via a derivative token.
LST	Liquid Staked Token — the derivative received when staking via a liquid staking protocol.
NPoS	Nominated Proof-of-Stake — Polkadot's consensus system. Nominators back validators; both can be slashed for misbehavior.
Pallet	A Substrate runtime module — the building block of Polkadot parachain logic.
PoS	Proof of Stake — a consensus mechanism where participants are chosen based on their token stake.
Runtime	The state transition function of a blockchain — defines how the state changes from block to block.
Shared Security	Polkadot's model where all parachains are equally secured by the relay chain validators.
Slashing	The removal of a percentage of staked tokens as a penalty for validator misbehavior.
Validator	A node that secures the Polkadot relay chain by staking DOT, validating parachain blocks, and participating in consensus.
XCM	Cross-Consensus Message — the communication format used inside the Polkadot ecosystem to transfer tokens and send messages in a trustless and safe manner.
XCMP	Cross-Chain Message Passing — the protocol for delivering XCM messages between Polkadot parachains.
HRMP	Horizontal Relay-routed Message Passing — a simpler, currently-deployed version of XCMP.
DKG	Distributed Key Generation — a cryptographic technique used in vETH's SSV integration to shard validator keys across multiple operators.
MPC	Multi-Party Computation — used alongside DKG in vETH to eliminate single points of failure in validator key management.

Yield & Finance Terms

Term	Definition
Yield-Bearing	A token model where rewards increase the token's exchange rate (value per token), not the token quantity. All Bifrost vTokens are yield-bearing.
Rebase Model	An alternative token model (used by stETH) where rewards mint new tokens, keeping the exchange rate at ~1:1. Bifrost does NOT use this model.
Protocol Conversion Rate	The on-chain exchange rate between a vToken and its underlying token, calculated as: Total Staked Tokens / Total vToken Supply.
APY	Annual Percentage Yield — total yield earned over a year, including compounding.
TVL	Total Value Locked — the total value of assets deposited in a protocol.
DEX	Decentralized Exchange.
AMM	Automated Market Maker — a type of DEX that uses liquidity pools and a pricing formula instead of an order book.
LP	Liquidity Provider / Liquidity Pool token.