Mina Glossary

This glossary contains key Mina terms and their definitions

This is our Mina glossary. This is to serve as a reference point for our Mina documentation and for Mina Academy (Table1). The entries are made in alphabetic order. Each term has an index for easier navigation. It’s critical to understand that this list is, for the most part, full, but, perhaps, not exhaustive. Furthermore, with time some terms and definitions may change, new terms and definitions may be added. Thus, this glossary is open for changes and comments.

Table 1 - Main Mina terms and definitions

Term	Definition
Account	A personal profile for digital asset management and other operations in the Mina blockchain.
Account balance	The amount of crypto assets on an account.
Active validator	A working node responsible for validating transactions and committing new blocks to the blockchain.
Actor	An entity participating in an action or network.
Address	The public address of a private key that serves as an identity of the subject of an account.
Age of transaction	A period showing how long ago a transaction was made.
Amount	The number of crypto assets on an account.
Archive node	A node that is designated to store historical data about transactions and blocks.
Average fee	An average amount of transaction fee that is charged to users when performing crypto transactions.
Berkeley	A QA network in Mina that is used for testing Zk-snarkers and Zk-apps.
Binary tree	A tree data structure in which each node has at most two children, the left child and the right child.
Block	A discrete unit of a blockchain that carries information about transactions, which is recorded in a special cryptographic way.
Blockchain	A digitally distributed decentralized public ledger that exists across a network and represents a sequence of blocks that are linked together in a special cryptographic manner, where each new block is added in the course of the cosensus work carried out by the chain participants.
Block fill rate	The number of slots that should contain a block; some slots may be empty to make sure the network will catch up in case of delay of messages.
Block confirmation	The number of blocks added after the reference block, where as the number of confirmations increases, the probability of reorganization becomes less, thereby the probability of confirming all transactions in the reference block increases.
Block height	An index of the position of a block in the blockchain relative to the original block. Thus, the 10th block added to the chain will have a block height of 10.
Block producer	A validator that participates in choosing which new blocks are valid to enter the blockchain and therefore participates in block production.
Block production	The process of producing blocks, which includes adding transactions to a block and recording them therein in a cryptographic manner, as well as gossipping network participants and adding a new block to the network.
Bootstrap	A node in the overlay network that provides initial configuration information to newly joining nodes.
Breadcrumb	An application aims to make blockchain data more accessible and more human empowering everyone to make informed decisions about the blockchain. It contains the external transition, the staged ledger, and pending coinbases and is generated by applying a transition to the prior state.
Canonical block	A block included in the primary blockchain and referenced directly or indirectly by future blocks.
Canonical chain	The main chain in the Mina blockchain that contains only canonical blocks.
Cardano Ouroboros	The consensus protocol for Cardano
Catchup	The final stage of the syncing process.
Centimina	0.01 of Mina.
Circuit	The method from which a prover function and a corresponding verifier function are derived during the build process in ZKapps
CLI (Command-Line Interface)	A text-based user interface that connects a user to a computer program or an operating system. Through the CLI, users interact with a system or application by typing in text (commands).
Cliff amount	The amount of Mina funds on an account that will be unlocked when the block number corresponding to the cliff time is mined.
Cliff time	The period of time that must pass before the tokens start to unlock.
Coinbase	The amount of coins rewarded.
Coinbase receiver	The address to which block rewards are delivered.
Compressing	Reducing the size of transmitted data.
Consensus	A process by which individual sections of a network define uniform rules and agree upon adding new blocks to the blockchain.
Consensus node	A computer that is a member of the Mina network performing the function of consensus and is a block producer.
Consortium	A private blockchain network operated by a company or group of companies.
Cryptocurrency	A digitally distributed and traded currency for which proof of ownership is established using cryptographic methods.
Crypto exchange	A service for trading cryptocurrency tokens for other tokens or fiat.
Current locked balance	The amount of Mina tokens that are currently locked on an account.
Current unlocked balance	The amount of Mina tokens that are now unlocked on an account.
DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)	A decentralized company operating on the basis of the rules set out in a smart contract and using the blockchain to transform its business logic into software logic.
Dapp (Decentralized Application)	A decentralized computer application based on blockchain technology together with a mechanism for a distributed execution of necessary instructions.
Decentralization	Transfer of control and decision-making from a centralized entity (individual, organization, or group thereof) to a distributed network.
Delegation	A type of blockchain consensus protocol that allows users to spend their coins or tokens to vote for different delegates.
Delegation status	A value showing the state of the delegation.
Delegator	An account that makes its staking by providing its ownds funds to a node rather than running its own node.
Devnet	A network of blockchain under development.
DPOS (Delegated Proof-of-Stake)	A blockchain verification and consensus mechanism based on the Proof of Stake concept, which is a cryptocurrency verification method through distributed consensus where stakeholders are selected as block producers through criteria analysis combined with randomization.
Epoch	A specific period of time in the Mina blockchain used to indicate when certain events will occur in the blockchain network, such as when incentives will be distributed or when a new group of validators will be assigned to validate transactions. The duration of an epoch inthe Mina Protocol is 7140 slots per epoch. A new slot is allocated every 3 minutes. With that in mind, an epoch lasts 21420 minutes, that's about 14 days and 21 hours.
Expected block	A block, which is expected to be produced in the next periods.
Explorer	A piece of software that uses a blockchain node to extract various data from the blockchain, and then uses a database to organize the searched data and present the data to the user in a searchable format.
External port	A port that the Mina daemon uses to connect to other nodes on the network.
External transition	A transition that is generated externally, i.e. by another block producer, and gossiped to a node.
Fee	A cryptocurrency transaction fee that is charged to users when performing crypto transactions.
Finality	Consensus constant k point at which chain reorganization is no longer possible.
Fork	A unique network created using the same protocol or consensus as a pre-existing network.
Full node	A Mina node that is able to verify the state of the network trustlessly. In Mina, every node is a full node since all nodes can receive and verify zk-SNARKs.
Full unlock date	The date when locked Mina funds of an account will be fully unlocked.
Genesis	The very first block upon which additional blocks in a blockchain are added.
Genesis block	The first block in the blockchain.
Graph QL	A unified interface to query more than 30 blockchains, makes it easier to aggregate data from multiple blockchains.
Hard fork	A fork, forever incompatible with the original network.
Hash	The output of a cryptographic function that maps an input to a specific but seemingly arbitrary output.
Hashrate	The rate at which a particular machine can perform a particular hash function.
Holder	An account in the Mina blockchain that doesn’t run a node and is not involved in delegation and only holds and transacts with Mina tokens.
ICO (Initial Coin Offering)	A way of attracting investments in the form of selling to investors a fixed number of new units of crypto-currencies received by one-time or accelerated gengeneration algorythm of a preliminary emission by the company of its own cryptocurrency outside the mining procedures and distribution of this emission among the stakeholders.
Incoming transaction	A transaction that come into the account.
Inflation	The process of increasing the token supply in the blockchain which follows a particular algorythm.
Initially locked balance	The amount of Mina tokens that were locked on an account at the Genesis.
Initial supply	The total amount of Mina tokens in the Mina blockchain at the Genesis.
Internal transition	A transition that is produced locally, i.e., by a block producer.
ITO (Initial Token Offering)	A virtual form of investment made via blockchain technology in which some technology companies issue tokens as an alternative means of raising capital, using an existing blockchain platform to create and register token distribution as a form of startup investment.
Kademlia	A distributed hash table (DHT) for decentralized peer-to-peer networks.
Keypair	A combination of a private and a public key.
Ledger	A distributed database where blckchain data are stored.
Libp2p	A peer-to-peer networking library that provides things like message broadcast and filesharing.
Light node	A node, a computer in the blockchain, that prefers to store only a subset of blocks and relies on full nodes for transactions that require the full blockchain and implements lightweight payment verification where block headers are downloaded during the initial synchronization and then requests transactions from full nodes as needed.
Lock date	The date when Mina funds were locked on an account.
Locked funds	Funds on an account with which transactions cannot be carried out.
Locked account	An account in the Mina blockchain that has locked funds on its balance.
Mainnet	A network of blockchain which is fully developed where transactions are being broadcast, verified, and recorded.
Mempool	A cryptocurrency node mechanism for storing information about unconfirmed transactions that are awaiting confirmation - a database where new transactions are stored.
Merkle path	The route to a particular node in a Merkle tree
Merkle root	The first node in a Merkle tree
Merkle tree	A data structure in which every node is labelled with the cryptographic hash of a data block, and every node that is not a leaf (called a branch, inner node, or inode) is labelled with the cryptographic hash of the labels of its child nodes.
Micromina	0,00001 of Mina.
Mina	The cryptocurrency based on the Mina protocol.
Mina Daemon	The process in Mina Protocol operating in the background waiting for a specific event or condition in order to be activated allowing a local client or wallet to talk to the Mina network.
Mina Protocol	A lightweight Proof-of-Stake blockchain protocol that maintains a constant size of just 22 KB, no matter how many transactions are made on the network, because of using ZK-proof approach.
Mina SDK	The software development kit used by the Mina blockchain that allows generating keypairs, signing and verifying messages, and signing transactions that can be broadcast to the network.
Movable balance	The amount of Mina funds on an account that can be used in transactions or withdrawn.
Next epoch ledger	The staking ledger for the next epoch (Epoch x+1).
Next epoch stake	Tokens that a user will receive or stake in the next epoch.
Node	A device (such as a computer) that contains a copy of the blockchain's transaction history and maintains a blockchain.
Non-consensus node	A full node in the Mina protocol that does not participate in consensus but can still fully verify the zero-knowledge proof to trustlessly validate the state of the chain.
Non-node	An address other than a node (a validator or a ZK-snarker) that doesn’t participate in mainaining the blockchain integrity and can execute transactions and hold Mina tokens.
Off-chain state	A state that is recorded outside the Mina blockchain.
On-chain state	A state that is recorded on the Mina blockchain.
Open source code	A software with a source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance.
Orphaned block	A block that has been resolved on the blockchain network but has not been accepted by the network.
Ouroboros Samasika	A robustly secure PoS protocol that combines the best features of each Iteration of Ouroboros to provide a PoS mechanism, allowing far forks, requiring no history, or risking centralization by relying on trusted third parties to provide information about forks.
Outgoing transaction	A debit-credit transaction that result in a decrease of balance of the account carrying out the transaction.
Payment	A transaction, in which funds are transferred from one account to another
Payment frequency	The number of reward payments made per unit of time.
Peer-to-peer	Networking systems that rely on peer nodes to distribute information amongst each other.
Private input	The data that is entered in a ZKapp for ZK-proof. It’s not needed for the verifier function.
Private key	An extremely large number, a mnemonic entry, used in cryptography as a password - the secret part of an account address.
Proof-of-Stake	A method of protection in cryptocurrencies, in which the probability of the formation of the next block in the blockchain by a participant is proportional to the share that the accounting units of this cryptocurrency belong to this participant from their total number.
Proof-of-Work	A decentralized consensus mechanism that requires network members to make a CPU effort to solve an arbitrary mathematical puzzle so that no one can cheat the system.
Protocol state	A state of the network, including the previous hash of the protocol state for linking blocks together, and a body containing the hash of the genesis state, the blockchain state, the consensus state, and the consensus constants.
Prover function	A function which executes a smart contract’s custom logic in Mina.
Public input	The data that is entered in a ZKapp for ZK-proof and is needed for the verifier function.
Public key	A cryptographic code that allows users to receive cryptocurrency into their accounts - the open part of an account address.
Publish-Subscribe	A messaging pattern where message senders broadcast messages, and any listeners that have previously subscribed to that sender's messages will be notified.
Receipt chain hash	A unique string of characters that is given to every transaction that is verified and added to the blockchain for encryption reasons.
Regular reward	A regular reward for block production in the amount of 720 Mina.
Reward	Tokens paid to a block producer for block production to encoure its engagement in maintaining the blockchain integrity.
Scan state	The data structure that queues transactions requiring transaction snark proofs and allows parallel processing of these transaction snarks by snark workers.
Scan state constant	A constant that dictates the structure and behavior of the scan state
Signature	A way to establish the authenticity or ownership of digitally signed messages.
Slot	A basic unit of time in the Mina blockchain. One epoch contains 7140 slots. 1 slot equals approximately 3 minutes.
Smart contract	A computer algorithm designed to generate, manage, and provide information about the ownership of something, used in decentralized autonomous organizations, banking and insurance sectors, securities markets, etc.
Snark coordinator	A system entity that coordinates the work of snarkers at the snarketplace. It is responsible for sending new work to snark workers (ZK-snarkers), ensuring they do not duplicate the same work.
Snarked Ledger	The ledger containing only transactions that have an associated proof (Epoch x).
Snarker/snark-worker	A network node that provides a ZK-proof (snark work).
Snarker fee	A fee for using the network node that provides ZK-proof.
Snarketplace	A buffer marketplace where nodes: validators and snarkers - exchange services.
Snark job	A part of snark work.
Snark pool	A pool that stores snarkers (snark workers) from where validators choose their snarkers.
Snark Proof/work	A cryptographic proof that allows one party to prove it possesses certain information without revealing that information
Snarky JS	a Typescript/Javascript framework for writing zk-SNARKs and snapps
Soft fork	A fork compatible with the data of the original chain.
Staged ledger	Most recent staged ledger (from the best tip of that node). A staged ledger can be regarded as a "Pending accounts database" that has transactions (payments, coinbase, and proof fees) applied for which there are no snarks available yet (Epoch x+2).
Stake	The share of staked validator tokens in total staked tokens.
Staking	The process of holding tokens locked on the blockchain as a proof of stake to mint new blockchain coins and thus maintain the inflation of the system. The blockchain participants that are engaged in staking, gain reward for it as an incentive.
Staking ledger	The Ledger used to determine block producers for a slot, as the probability of winning a slot is proportional to the amount of stake (Epoch x+2).
Staking participation rate	The ratio of the number of Mina accounts that participate in staking to the total number of accounts.
Staking ratio	The ratio of staked funds to the total token supply in the Mina blockchain.
Staking pool	A delegated funds pool that is managed by the staking pool owner and where other nodes can delegate funds to avoid the requirement to be online.
Staking provider	A validator to which tokens are delegated by delegators, i.e. a validator that provides staking to accounts that are non-nodes.
State machine	A behavior pattern that consists of a finite number of states and is therefore also called a finite state machine.
Supercharged block	A block, which, when produced, gives a supercharged reward (2x to a regular reward) to the block winner, which is given when the block winner has no locked funds on the account.
Supercharged reward	A supercharged reward for block production in the amount of 1440 Mina paid when a certain condition is met, i.e. when the tokenholder has fully unlocked tokens.
Syncing	The process of building a node transition boundary by creating navigation chains for all transitions between the root of the transition boundary and the current best tip.
Testnet	An alternative blockchain to be used for testing.
Throughput	The measure of how many transaction a blockchain is able to process within a given time frame.
Time-locked account	Аn account with an unallocated amount of tokens that cannot be moved until a certain condition is met.
Token	Special crypto asset, a unit of cryptocurrency of a certain blockchain, issued according to the rules of a particular blockchain and can be used as a cryptocurrency.
Token supply	The total number of tokens in a blockchain.
Transfer	A transaction when tokens are sent from one account to another account (payment).
Transaction	A transfer of data from one block to another in a cryptographic manner that launches state transition.
Transaction amount	The amount of Mina funds that is being transacted.
Transition frontier	A local data store that contains the last k blocks of the network.
Transaction pool	A list of all pending transactions - sometimes referred to as the "mempool".
Transaction status	The value indicating the state of the transaction.
Transaction volume	A transfer of cryptocurrency from one address to another.
TypeScript	A programming language that is used to wride ZKapps.
Unlock date	The date from the beginning of which it will be possible to conduct transactions of cryptocurrency and tokens.
Unlocked funds	Funds with which transactions can be made.
Unlocked status	A status showing the possibility of making transactions.
User transaction	A transaction issued by a user - a payment or a delegation change.
Validation	An activity of validators aimed at ensuring that a transaction is valid and its states are all correct and true.
Validator	A node that maintains the integrity of the blockchain by constantly calculating the link from the first block to the last one and by approving new blocks created by block producers.
Validator fee	A fee for verifying transactions on a blockchain (validation).
Validator pool	A pool which consists of the stake of an elected validators.
Validator pool share	The share of tokens delegated to a validator in relation to the total supply.
Verifiable random function	A public-key pseudorandom function that provides proofs that its outputs were calculated correctly.
Verification key	A piece of encryption that is used for execution of a smart contract.
Verifier function	The function that validates whether a zero-knowledge proof successfully passes all the constraints defined in the prover function.
Vesting increment	The amount of Mina funds that are unlocked whenever the next vesting time interval is over.
Vesting time	An interval after which some part of the funds of the accounts are unlocked until full unlock. These intervals begin to count down when a cliff time is reached.
VRF (Verifiable Random Function)	A function used to select a block producer for a slot and takes as input a random seed obtained from the output of the previous epoch's VRF, in addition to the public key and the current rate registry, and is deterministic.
Wallet	A digital wallet that allows users to store and manage their crypto assets.
Web-1	The first stage of the World Wide Web evolution. It is characterized by a few content creators with a huge majority of users who were consumers of content. Personal web pages were common, consisting mainly of static pages hosted on ISP-run web servers, or on free web hosting services.
Web-2	The second stage of the World Wide Web evolution. It is characterized by a growing array of user-generated content, usability, and interoperability for end users. Web 2.0 is also called the participative social web. The content is generated not only by web site providers, but by users themselves.
Web-3	It refers to the evolution of web utilization and interaction which includes altering the Web into a database. Web 3 is largerly based on the blockchain technology.
ZKapp	Web application that is based on smart contracts and provides ZK-proof for the market.
ZKOracle	A Polkadot-based privacy-preserving oracle network, aiming to expand the application areas of Web3 applications in real business environments. It is used for ZKapps in Mina.
ZK-snark/ZK-proof	A cryptographic method by which one party (a prover) can prove to another party (a verifier) that a given statement is true while the prover avoids conveying any additional information apart from the fact that the statement is indeed true.