Glossary
Collator:
A node that maintains a parachain by collecting parachain transactions and producing state transition proofs for the validators
Crowdloan:
A mechanism for potential parachains to temporarily source tokens to win an auction for a parachain slot. Tokens gathered in this way are programmatically returned to the lender after the lease period is over or the crowdloan period ends.
Era:
A (whole) number of sessions, which is the period that the validator set (and each validator's active nominator set) is recalculated and where rewards are paid out.
Governance:
The process of determining what changes to the network are permissible, such as modifications to code or movement of funds. The governance system in Polkadot is on-chain and revolves around stakeholder voting.
Interoperability:
The ability for some sort of system to exchange and make use of information often compared to "cross-chain" technologies.
Liquid Staking:
It allows you to use your staked tokens for other purposes, such as trading or providing liquidity, while still earning the staking yield.
LST:
Liquid Staked Token. The is the proof of your deposit you receive for staking tokens through a Liquid Staking protocol.
Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS):
A Proof-of-Stake system where nominators back validators with their own stake as a show of faith in the good behavior of the validator. Nominated Proof-of-Stake differs from the more generic concept Delegated Proof-of-Stake in that nominators are subject to loss of stake if they nominate a bad validator; delegators are not subject to loss of stake based on the behavior of the validator. Note that some other blockchain technologies may use the term Delegated Proof-of-Stake, even if delegators can be slashed. Polkadot uses the Phragmén method to allocate stake to nominees.
Pallet:
A Substrate runtime module.
Proof of Stake (PoS):
A method of selecting participation in a consensus system, in which participants are chosen based on how many tokens they have at stake (at risk of loss due to misbehavior). Normally, Proof-of-Stake systems limit the number of participants.
Runtime:
The state transition function of a blockchain. It defines a valid algorithm for determining the state of the next block given the previous state.
Shared Security:
The security model that Polkadot uses whereby all chains are equally secured. This is achieved by placing proofs of the validity of parachain blocks into the Relay Chain such that, in order to revert finality of a single parachain, an attacker would need to attack the entire Polkadot system.
Slashing:
The removal of a percentage of an account's DOT as a punishment for a validator acting maliciously or incompetently. For more information, see the page about offenses.
SLP:
Staking Liquidity Protocol. The main pallet used for the staking logic.
SALP:
Slot Auction Liquidity Protocol. The main pallet used for the parachain auction & crowdloan logic.
Staking:
The act of bonding tokens for Polkadot (DOT) by putting them up as "collateral" for a chance to produce a valid block (and thus obtain a block reward). Validators and nominators stake their DOT in order to secure the network.
Validator:
A node that secures the Relay Chain by staking DOT, validating proofs from collators on parachains and voting on consensus along with other validators.
XCM:
Cross-Consensus Message. XCM is a language for communicating intentions between consensus systems. This is the primitive language used inside the Polkadot ecosystem to transfer tokens in a trustless & safe manner.
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