Glossary

Obyte terms, not too technical, but assuming some familiarity with cryptocurrencies

Entries

ADDRESS: (Disambiguation)  

• A device address is all upper case, starts with 0, looks like 0VCPO8MYDRN2E6N5JDRHRLTVEVZSZYARM

• A payment address in a wallet is all upper case, looks like K7RMH5EFPZW67JTS5B5GA6PDZA4MYX4LY

• A wallet ID looks like lNeHNjLs3u38SJ9dPb+SUZ+aZX3a7RWI1osYJH9QHRw=

• A unit address, like a transaction you sent, looks like Ip241kkFRkZnaVF61Z6+/JW3YELOaHn9C6PAjeMp8fs=  

• A bitcoin address looks like 13AM4VW2dhxYgXeQepoHkHSQuy6NgaEb94, may also start with "3" or "bc1".

AIR-DROP: The final snapshot for distribution of new bytes to payment addresses linked to proven BTC balances occurred on 4 November 2017 at 05:23 UTC.

• For each 1 BTC linked --> 6.25MB (0.00625GB)  

• For each 1 BTC linked --> 2.1111 x 6.25 million blackbytes (money supply of blackbytes is 2.1111 times as much as that of bytes)

• For every 10 (white)bytes on any address --> 1 new (white)byte

• For every 10 (white)bytes on a linked address --> 2.1111 new blackbytes.

See wiki Airdrop article.

ASSET: Users can issue new assets and define rules that govern their transferability. For example: ICOs, shares, bonds, fiat-pegged coins, loyalty points, minutes of airtime, assets in online games, whatever you can imagine. You can do this in Obyte right now. See wiki article Asset for instructions

ATOMIC EXCHANGE: When two parties sign a single unit that executes both legs of the exchange, the two transactions either happen simultaneously or don't happen at all. It is no longer necessary to trust any centralized exchanges. Note this uses a definition of "atomic" related to databases, and has nothing to do with the usual "extremely small" senses.

ATTESTOR: The attestor who attests the email addresses through the Email attestation bot is H5EZTQE7ABFH27AUDTQFMZIALANK6RBG, and it is also a WITNESS. The attestor is trusted to post only true Obyte-address-to-email-address links to the DAG.

AUTHOR: (In explorer) Authors are payment addresses that signed the transaction, similar to bitcoin sending address.

BBIP: Byteball Improvement Proposal. Replaced by OIP.

BIND: See CONDITIONAL PAYMENTS

BLACKBYTE: One of the two native Obyte currencies (also see BYTE). When you want complete privacy pay in blackbytes, a cash-like untraceable currency whose transactions are not visible on the public database. They are sent peer-to-peer instead.. With wallet version 2.3 they can be sent by digital file to someone not in Obyte yet.

BOT: See CHATBOT

BOT STORE: The section in the Obyte platform, available from the CHAT tab, that contains about 20 bots you can add to your contacts.

BYTE: One of the two native currencies of the Obyte network (also see BLACKBYTE). It is also a basic general computing term: *A sequence of adjacent bits, usually eight, operated on as a unit, e.g. 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1. One byte can store one character, e.g. 'A' or 'x' or '$'.* There are 10^15 total Bytes in the system. The unit traded on exchanges is the "GByte", 10^9 Bytes.

BYTEBALL (NAME): (1) Once a unit is broadcast into the network, and other users start building their units on top of it (referencing it as parent), the number of secondary revisions required to edit this unit hence grows like a snowball.  That’s why we call this design Byteball (our snowflakes are bytes of data). [Rebranded to Obyte on 17 Jan 2019]

(2) Byteball (upper-case "B") was the name of the platform, the protocol; byteball (lower-case "b") was sometimes (mis)used very loosely to represent the currency, as in "Hey, I see a byteball [1 GB] is now worth $250!" or "Use blackbytes for private transactions and byteballs for the open ones".

BYTEROLL: The original Byteball wiki was hosted at byteroll.com on @portabella's private server. The Byteball wiki subdomain forwarded to Byteroll.

CASHBACK: We want to get this coin into the hands of as many people as possible. In addition to the regular monthly airdrop, we are going to partner with several categories of companies, like merchants, payment processors, and "Bitcoin debit card" companies. We will offer 10% cashback, paid in Bytes, for all qualifying purchases (no matter how the purchases are paid).  

CHAT: The platform incorporates a chat function, allowing the user to exchange end-to-end-encrypted messages using AES with a peer or bot when their devices are paired. It's end-to-end encrypted using AES. The hubs only forward the encrypted messages; they can't see anything.  To deliver your message, your platform connects to the recipient's hub (if it's different from your home hub).

CHATBOT: You can pair your platform with a bot, which emulates the experience of chatting with a live person. The bot will have very limited responses, but enough to get the job done. A merchant bot could allow you to select from a range of pizzas, for example, then pay for your order with two clicks while still in that chat session. See the wiki Chatbot article for a list.

CHILDREN: (In explorer) Children and parents are pointers to later and earlier units in the DAG (see the arrows between units).

CONDITIONAL PAYMENTS: This is the killer feature of Obyte, and the "smart payments" in the slogan. You can choose to bind a payment to a condition. If/when that condition is satisfied the payment is unlocked and only the recipient can collect it. If the condition fails the payment can only be collected by the issuer. See the wiki Trading blackbytes article for an example.

CONFIRMED: An Obyte payment is confirmed/stable once it has become sufficiently buried by later transactions to be unalterable, similar to confirmations on a blockchain. It usually takes about five minutes.

DAG: Directed_acyclic_graph, the radically-different immutable data structure used in the Obyte platform instead of the usual cryptocurrency blockchain. No mining, no proof-of-work, no proof-of-stake.

DATAFEED: A line item posted into the DAG by an oracle. The data is of the form [Datafeed name] then [Datafeed value], for example BTC_USD: 6788.0.

DISTRIBUTION: See AIRDROP. For current campaigns to give away undistributed bytes, see https://obyte.org/#dist.

DOUBLE-SPEND: In case of doublespend, the version that comes earlier on the main chain wins.  Therefore, if your node is well-connected and you see a few other transactions piling up on top of the new unconfirmed transaction, and the time since its arrival is significantly larger than the typical network latency, then you can be reasonably sure that even if a doublespend appears later it will be sorted later, hence voided.

FREE UNIT: A unit that has no children.

FULLY FUNDED: The state of a SMART CONTRACT when the agreed payments from both parties have been locked in the contract until certain conditions are satisfied. See the wiki Smart contract article.

FUN-COIN: A freely-available token on the Obyte platform having zero monetary value, intended for practice with various features like textcoin and smart contracts. See the wiki fun-coins article.

GENESIS UNIT: The Obyte analog to Bitcoin's genesis block, including the creation of the entire global supply of its native currencies: 1,000,000 GBytes and 2,111,100 GBBytes.  

GRANTS: Obyte Grants Program. We’ll pay for work that improves the ecosystem. We want the contributors to both come up with new ideas and realize them.

HUB: This is a node for the Obyte network that serves as a relay, plus it facilitates the exchange of end-to-end encrypted messages among devices connected to the Obyte network. The hub does not hold any private keys and cannot send payments itself, nor can it read the messages. Users set their hub address in their wallet settings. The default hub is wss://obyte.org/bb but users can change it. See wiki Hub article.

ICO: An initial coin offering is a controversial means of crowdfunding centered around cryptocurrency, which can be a source of capital for startup companies. In an ICO, a quantity of the crowdfunded cryptocurrency is preallocated to investors in the form of "tokens", in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or ethereum. These tokens supposedly become functional units of currency if or when the ICO's funding goal is met and the project launches. Obyte has an ICO bot, and anyone can issue tokens on the platform.

IDENTITY VERIFICATION: Proving one's real-world identity with government-issued documentation using the REAL NAME ATTESTATION bot, but after this one can verify age or country of origin without disclosing further identifying information. Same as REAL NAME ATTESTATION

LINKED: Concerning airdrops, it refers to (white)bytes at one of your wallet addresses linked to bitcoins, where the link has been verified by the transition bot. All such pairs were visible on the transition pages.

MOVED: In a wallet history, shows funds moving from one address in your wallet to a different address in the same wallet. Either you deliberately sent them there, or they moved as change. See wiki article Change address.

MULTI SIGNATURE: For security, you can require that your funds be spendable only when several signatures are provided, e.g. from your laptop and from your phone. For shared control of funds, signatures from different people may be required.

NODE: Imagine a fishing net: the nodes would be the knots holding the lines of rope together. Every device in the Obyte network is technically a node, whether a light client/platform, a full platform, a relay or a hub. Informally, node is used to mean full platform. See wiki article Node for different roles.

O: [Tony:] O in Obyte stands for Open. When we renamed, many people wondered what O stands for. While it is true that it replaces the former "ball", I also want to make it clear that O stands for Open. It speaks about the core values of the platform: open access to the ledger, not encumbered by miners or other intermediaries, which simply do not exist here in a DAG. We are going to have more O-names for the products built on top of the platform.

OBYTE COMMUNITY FUND: The Obyte Community Fund's goal is to support and encourage the Obyte crypto platform. Fundraising is done by voluntary donations from investors, stakeholders and enthusiasts.  

OIP: Obyte Improvement Proposal. Based on the Bitcoin BIP system. See OIP wiki article.

ORACLE: A trusted third party that monitors specific external events and registers selected data-feed items to the Obyte database. An example is a list of cryptocurrency exchange rates updated every ten minutes. When dealing with untrusted counterparties, you can lock the funds on a payment address that is spendable either by you or by the counterparty, depending on the oracle's data collection and registration. See wiki article Oracle.

P2P INSURANCE: Insurance against a negative event provided by another peer instead of a faceless company. An example is flight delays insurance.

PAIR: To link with another Obyte device, either remote or face-to-face, use a pairing code generated by either device. In your wallet, Chat > add a new device > invite the other device OR Chat > add a new device > accept invitation. The code can then be sent by pasting it into a non-platform messaging app, or by QR code.

PARENTS: (In explorer) Children and parents are pointers to later and earlier units in the DAG (see the arrows between units).

PLATFORM: (1) Generally, refers to the entire Obyte protocol, as in "You can easily create new custom assets that will run on the platform." (2) An instance of the Obyte platform software installed on one of your devices, sometimes called a wallet. But that name is confusing as this platform instance can contain many wallets, for example a Single-Address Wallet, a Small Expenses Wallet, a Savings Wallet, etc. A full platform/wallet downloads the whole Obyte database, a light platform/wallet doesn't. See wiki article Node for different roles, and Wallet for many more details.

POLL: See VOTE. Also marketing polls via Twitter etc, in usual meaning of the word.

PREDICTION MARKETS: Prediction markets are (usually) exchange-traded markets created for the purpose of trading the outcome of events. The purpose of the Slack #prediction_markets channel was "Finding a counterpart for bets on future events". See wiki article Trading prediction markets.

PROSAIC CONTRACT: See the wiki Prosaic contract article. Compare SMART CONTRACT

REAL NAME ATTESTATION: See IDENTITY VERIFICATION

RECOVER: Recovery is available in single-sig (i.e., not multi-sig) light platforms from version 1.10.1, and full platforms too. Note that blackbytes are not included. Also see RESTORE

REFERRAL: A referral is getting a second person to install the Obyte wallet on his own device (smartphone or computer) and doing an attestation from that device/wallet, using Bytes received from the first person.

REGULATED ASSETS: Regulated institutions can issue assets that are compatible with KYC/AML requirements. Every transfer of such asset is to be cosigned by the issuer, and if there is anything that contradicts the regulations, the issuer won't cosign.

RELAY: This is a node for the Obyte network that stores the entire database and forwards new storage units to peers. The relay does not hold any private keys and cannot send payments itself. See wiki article Node for different roles.

RESTORE: To restore from a full backup. This also includes private assets. Works with any wallet type. Also see RECOVER

SINGLE-ADDRESS WALLET: These wallets have only one payment address and the change always returns to the same address, supporting applications that require a stable identity. For example, you can run a manual oracle right from your wallet without having to run a node on a server. This allows you to run a PREDICTION MARKET for a future event, enabling users to make contracts (bets) referencing your payment address as an oracle, and when the outcome of the event is known you post its result from your wallet. See the wiki Wallet article.

SMART CONTRACT/WALLET: See the wiki Smart contract article. See CONDITIONAL PAYMENTS. Compare PROSAIC CONTRACT  

SMART VOUCHER: A coupon to fund IDENTITY VERIFICATION / REAL NAME ATTESTATION for new users. See the wiki [Smart Voucher]] article.

STABLE: See CONFIRMED

STORAGE UNIT: Obyte is a decentralized system that allows tamper-proof storage of arbitrary data, including data that represents transferrable value such as currencies, property titles, debt, shares, etc. Storage units are linked to each other [cryptographically]. 

TANGOS: An Obyte fun-coin created in January 2018. See the wiki Tangos article.

TEXTCOIN: Sending Obyte funds from one's wallet through a text app, such as an email, Telegram, WhatsApp etc. See the wiki Textcoin article. 

TINGOS: A Obyte fun-coin created in January 2018. See the wiki Tingos article.

TRANSACTION FEE: The fee you pay is identical to the size of the data you want stored. So a storage unit that takes up 18,000 bytes in the distributed Obyte database will cost 18,000 (white)Bytes to send there. Currently a usual transaction fee is maybe 500 Bytes, with a blackbytes fee being maybe 1000 Bytes or so. If 1GB = $750, then 1MB = $0.75, and 1KB (1000 bytes) = $0.00075. So that's less than 1/10 cent US.

TRANSITION BOT: After installing the wallet, one chatted with the Transition Bot to participate in the next distribution round. See the wiki article Airdrop.

UNIT: (In explorer) Unit is hash of data unit, similar to bitcoin transaction ID, but a unit can have more than just a transaction.

VOTE: (In platform Poll bot) A vote is a small transaction that pays to yourself and is signed by your most funded addresses; the weight of the vote is the combined balance of the signing addresses.  Note that there is a privacy concern because by making a vote you associate a number of your addresses. 

WALLET: The Obyte PLATFORM software a regular user downloads/installs comes with a default SINGLE-ADDRESS WALLET, but you can create as many more wallets as you wish. See wiki article wallet for many more wallet details, and other wiki articles for what you can do with the platform and wallets you create.

WITNESS: A witness is a highly reputable user with a real-world identity, who stamps each transaction seen. There are 12 witnesses involved in every transaction. In exchange for the work involved, a witness collects part of the transaction fee. This list varies very little from transaction to transaction. If 11 witnesses say no to a bad transaction and 1 says yes, that witness gets deemed unreliable and effectively fired. It would be unthinkable for all 12 to collude and allow a fraudulent transaction through. In this way the network is safeguarded.

ZANGOS: An Obyte fun-coin created in January 2018. See the wiki Zangos article.

ZINGOS: An Obyte fun-coin created in January 2018. See the wiki Zingos article.

ZWIB: The first Obyte new asset/token traded on Slack. The name comes from the unit address, *ZW1b...*