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Lexicon:There are a lot of wierd words used in Cardano as placeholders for different parts of the system. Of course, the world of blockchain is complicated, so some would say that using hard to remember and hard to spell words as well can make things a little confusing. Well, we're here to help. This is a short list of all the most commonly used words and phrases and a quick reminder of what they mean, with links where applicable. A great way to see an overview of the original plan is Charles' whiteboard from Oct 2017 - he says a lot of words in it. |
In the Byron phase the Cardano protocol is created and
is supported by servers run by IOHK. At this point the only coin is ADA, and it runs a UTXO protocol.
While new transactions are created by centralised servers anybody can install a Daedalus wallet which
downloads and verifies the full blockchain. During this phase a lot of polishing goes into the way
the blockchain is stored and the asthetics and speed of the experience. Little known fact: Lord Byron
was the father of Ada Lovelace.
In this phase the team will tackle the scalability problem
which is a key area of concern in all blockchain projects. There is always a trade-off between speed,
decentralisation and security. In highly decentalised systems it takes time for a transaction to
propagate around the network, so reducing the block time or increasing the block size reduces security
unless you cut the number of nodes. A new version of Ouroboros called Ouroboros Praos will be
introduced, which will support multiple paralell blockchains, eventually allowing unlimited
scalability.
Daedalus is the name for the full node wallet. It
downloads a full copy of the blockchain so you will need a bit of disk space to hold it and it will
take some time to get synchronised. Sometimes its surprising how many people like to keep the whole
blockchain and validate it themselves, but there is something nice about seeing it all work. When
Shelly arrives you can stake your coins for a reward, and you can create multiple separate wallets
with multiple addresses inside each wallet. It also supports a paper wallet, so once you are working
you can create a new address which exists only on paper but can still be funded. Daedalus has been
developed using
Electron, which is a web based toolset using HTML, CSS,
and JavaScript, but it runs locally, without a browser. You can download it for Windows, Mac, or Linux
here.
Yoroi is an ADA only light wallet that runs as a Google
Chrome extension, so it works with any browser which supports Chrome Extensions, such as Chrome or
Firefox. The main things about it are that it is very easy to install, easy to use, and it supports
Hardware Wallets like the Ledger Nano S. This is a very well known and commonly used hardware wallet,
and its generally accepted that hardware wallets are the most secure way to hold your private keys.
You can install Yoroi
here
Exodus is a great looking very easy to use multi-asset
wallet that allows you to store your own private keys and hold lots of different currencies in one
place. It supports all the ERC20 tokens as well as most of the major currencies, including ADA. For
ADA as well as several other currencies it also supports staking, so with no extra hassle you get your
rewards as well. It can also hold your NFTs, which is a great bonus. It doesn't allow you to trade
them, but if you buy them in the wallet it will lock them until you want to transfer them out, then
help you do it.
Exodus also supports the Trezor hardware wallet, and allows quick in-wallet swaps between currencies so if you have some Ether or Bitcoin (or anything really) you can quickly swap it for ADA. Overall, an excellent wallet choice. Download it here
Infinito is a fairly popular wallet for Android or
Apple phones which supports a reasonable range of currencies including Cardano. There's no hardware
wallet support, but the private keys are held in encrypted format on the local device so you are in
control. You can also create friendly addresses in your address book, and they have a gateway to fiat
(which I haven't tried). You can install Infinito from the Play store, or App store. The website is
here
Atomic advertises itself as a Universal Cryptocurrency
Wallet and it supports lots of currencies. Apart from a long list of the major currencies you can
also add any ERC20 token, so there is a good choice. You can choose the ones you want to show and
hide the rest. You can also buy with fiat using a credit or debit card. Also atomic swaps from one
currency to another work easily and quickly with a 2% fee. Its pretty good. It also works on a wide
range of operating systems including Windows, Mac, Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora. The website is
here
Seiza is a new blockchain explorer for Cardano. Blockchain explorers
tend to be quite utilitarian in their approach, but this one is promised to be a bit more user friendly. Better
looking and more accessible to people who maybe don't want to be faced with huge lists of digits and letters.
At the time of writing its not here yet, so we have to wait.
Project Catalyst is at the centre of the
Voltaire phase. It's purpose is to bring as many people
as possible together into an effective decision making team to choose how to spend money to improve
the ecosystem. When ada is generated during the creation of blocks a percentage (known as t) is kept back for
the treasury. This then becomes available to spend on projects which allow the system to be developed then
advertised to the world. Project Catalyst is the collaboration and voting system which has been created under
the Ideascale umbrella to make effective generation and selection
of ideas possible.
QED is the very tentative title of a project to build a
computer system that effectively represents all important mathematical knowledge and techniques. The QED
system will conform to the highest standards of mathematical rigor, including the use of strict formality
in the internal representation of knowledge and the use of mechanical methods to check proofs of the
correctness of all entries in the system. Ambitiously, it intends to become a repository for all
mathematical knowledge.
Marlowe is a language for writing smart contracts. It runs
inside Plutus, but is streamlined and simplified. As a result its a GREAT place to start if you really want
to learn about how smart contracts are built, and why Cardano is better than the competition. To help you out,
I have created a step by step tutorial about Marlowe, so you can get
a good look at it. The idea is to give you all the tools you need to build a financial contract in a
form that you can learn, rather than a complete programming language which has hidden traps.
There are two pieces of software developed as clients to support the Ouroborus protocol once Shelley is
released. One is written in Rust, the other in Haskell. Jormungandr is the Rust client. The two programs
were developed in parallel because this allows them to be compared both with each other and with the
specification at the same time. Differences are then discussed to ensure the right decision is made where
it is open to opinion. Jormungandr was finished a little more quickly, so it is the one used in the first
Testnet. The word
Jormungandr
comes from the Midgard Serpent in Norse mythology, chosen to complement Ouroborus, which is an Egyptian
snake. Here is a good video explaining how to
install it.
Tangata Manu is a codebase library for use by developers
who want to develop wallets and explorers which link to the Cardano blockchain. It allows programmers to
quickly upload the blockchain into a local database via an API, then keep it up to date. This allows
projects to be developed which use a copy of the blockchain kept locally and serve it within an application.
Tangata Manu is open source, download it on git.
The Plutus Application Backend is the software which can be included
in an application to allow it to run smart contracts written in Plutus. Smart contracts are supported by the
blockchain and their rules are processed on the Cardano Computation Layer, but when an interface is being provided
to the user it will need two parts to be developed to run locally as part of the application. These are the
Application Backend, which is the bit that talks to the blockchain, and the Application Frontend, which is
the user interface. The PAB, then, is a toolset which enables these Apps to be developed. The obvious use for
it is in Wallets, to allow them to support smart contracts, but any software taking advantage os smart contract
functionality is likely to need it.
Adrestia is an API. It has been developed as a bridge between
higher level applications and the blockchain. If you are running a Cardano Node and you want to develop
software which talks to it, like a wallet, but in fact any application which wants to see and spend ADA,
you can install Adrestia and use the toolset to make your life easier. If you want to build an exchange, or
build links to smart contracts, Adrestia is a great place to start. You can
download it on git or
You can find more information about it
in the Cardano Documentation pages.
Ouroboros is the much hailed and well researched Delegated
Proof Of Stake model used by Cardano to mine transactions. The problem faced by all currencies is that
everybody wants some, and many are willing to lie and cheat to get them. The currency has to find a way
to verify that the funds are real and the total amount can't increase. Governments do this by having a
central bank, which prints the new money and checks up on everybody. Bitcoin does it using a Proof Of Work
system. Here is my simplified Bitcoin walkthough.
This website was created by Kevmate. Its all my own work. Contact me by emailing me at kev@kevmate.com