# Documentation Glossary

**Last Updated**: 2025-01-27  
**Status**: Active

This glossary defines technical terms used throughout the project documentation.

## A

### AKS
**Azure Kubernetes Service** - Managed Kubernetes service on Azure.

### API Gateway
A service that acts as an entry point for API requests, providing rate limiting, authentication, and routing.

## B

### Besu
**Hyperledger Besu** - An Ethereum client written in Java, used as the blockchain client for this network.

### Blockscout
A blockchain explorer that provides a user-friendly interface for viewing blocks, transactions, and contracts.

## C

### CCIP
**Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol** - Chainlink's protocol for cross-chain communication.

### ChainID
A unique identifier for a blockchain network. This project uses ChainID 138.

### Consensus
The mechanism by which nodes in a blockchain network agree on the state of the blockchain. This project uses QBFT.

## D

### DeFi
**Decentralized Finance** - Financial applications built on blockchain technology.

## E

### Epoch
A period of blocks in a blockchain network. In QBFT, validators are selected for each epoch.

### EthSigner
A transaction signing application that provides a secure way to sign Ethereum transactions.

## G

### Genesis Block
The first block in a blockchain, containing the initial network configuration and validator set.

## H

### Helm
A package manager for Kubernetes that simplifies deployment and management of applications.

## I

### IBFT 2.0
**Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerance 2.0** - A previous consensus mechanism (deprecated, replaced by QBFT).

## K

### Key Vault
**Azure Key Vault** - A cloud service for securely storing and accessing secrets, keys, and certificates.

### kubectl
Command-line tool for interacting with Kubernetes clusters.

## M

### MultiSig
**Multi-Signature** - A wallet or contract that requires multiple signatures to execute transactions.

## N

### Node
A computer running blockchain software that participates in the network.

## O

### Oracle
A service that provides external data to smart contracts on the blockchain.

### Oracle Aggregator
A smart contract that aggregates data from multiple oracle sources.

### Oracle Publisher
An off-chain service that fetches data and publishes it to the oracle aggregator.

## P

### P2P
**Peer-to-Peer** - A network architecture where nodes communicate directly with each other.

### Pod
The smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes, containing one or more containers.

## Q

### QBFT
**Quorum Byzantine Fault Tolerance** - The consensus mechanism used in this network (replaced IBFT 2.0).

## R

### RPC
**Remote Procedure Call** - A protocol for requesting services from a remote server. JSON-RPC is used for blockchain interactions.

### RPC Node
A blockchain node that provides RPC endpoints for querying blockchain data and submitting transactions.

## S

### Sentry Node
A blockchain node that acts as a proxy between validators and the public network, providing security.

### Smart Contract
Self-executing code deployed on a blockchain that automatically executes when conditions are met.

## T

### Terraform
Infrastructure as Code tool used to provision and manage cloud infrastructure.

### Transaction
A signed message that requests a change to the blockchain state.

## V

### Validator
A node that participates in consensus and creates new blocks in the blockchain.

### VNet
**Virtual Network** - An isolated network in Azure where resources can communicate securely.

## W

### WETH
**Wrapped Ether** - An ERC-20 token that represents Ether (ETH) on the blockchain.

### WETH9
The original WETH standard implementation.

### WETH10
An improved version of WETH with additional features.

## Related Documentation

- [Master Documentation Index](MASTER_DOCUMENTATION_INDEX.md)
- [Architecture Documentation](architecture/ARCHITECTURE.md)

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**Last Updated**: 2025-01-27