Glossary

Asset / digital asset

Assets are owned by identities and can take multiple forms such as digital representations of physical products (digital assets), real products, or raw materials – they are categorised by being useful or having value.

Blockchain

Blockchain falls under the umbrella of Distributed Ledger Technology. Transactions are recorded within an immutable structure using cryptographic techniques such as hashes and signatures into blocks of transactions. Multiple of these are chained together over time to create a history of transactions.

Cryptographic signature

A cryptographic process by which plaintext data is processed to produce a unique and unforgeable value that is linked to an identity. It is later possible to verify that this identity produced the signature and attests that the underlying data is true and can be trusted.

Cryptographic authentication

The process through which iov42 technology uses Public Key cryptography to verify that any requests are from a valid identity within a zone.

Conventional node architecture

Any device that has the connectivity, storage capacity, and processing ability to support a Distributed Ledger Technology network, e.g. laptops, PCs, specialist farms of custom hardware. More nodes within a Distributed Ledger Technology network improve resilience against system-threatening events.

Consensus

Consensus is a general agreement among parties. In the context of Distributed Ledger Technology, the consensus mechanism is a robust way for the nodes to reach agreements on the current state of the network.

Claims

A claim is a plaintext piece of information added to assets or identities that asserts something true about them. E.g., the claim that an identity has a specific date of birth or an asset has been approved by a regulator for trade.

Distributed Random Master Election (DRME)

iov42 achieves security through a unique consensus approach, Distributed Random Master Election. It randomly assigns which node leads the coordination of any given consensus decision on a per transaction basis. 

The randomness of DRME ensures bad actors cannot manipulate an iov42 network.

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)

Refers to the technological infrastructure and protocols that allow simultaneous access, validation, and record updating across a network that is spread among entities and multiple locations.

Transactions on the iov42 DLT are immutable similarly to other known blockchains.

Digital Twin

A digital twin is a digital representation of a physical, real world object. The linking between the two is a critical part that is specific to the type of object and the digital representation. Assets on the iov42 Distributed Ledger Technology can be used as digital twins.

Digital trust

Digital trust is the ability to trust either an identity or a network online.

Endorsements

An endorsement is a cryptographic signature applied to a claim.Trusted third parties can endorse an identity or asset, allowing other parties (e.g. partners, regulators, auditors etc) to validate and trust that claim. An endorsement effectively extends the trust that can be bestowed on a claim.

Governance

Describes the set of rules used to govern a network as a whole by node operators and use case owners.

Hashing

Hashing uses a mathematical function to generate a value from a text that is easy to verify, but practically impossible to fake.

Internet of Value (IoV)

A set of emerging protocols on the Internet that allow for value to be represented through digital representations that are ‘scarce’ in the sense that they can have only a constrained set of owners at any given time. Distributed Ledger Technologies enforce and maintain a ledger of such ownership over time.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Physical objects that are equipped to process data from the world around them and exchange that data with other devices and systems over the internet.

Immutability

Immutability is one of the major benefits that Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) brings. It refers to the fact that all data entering the ledger cannot be amended or deleted. The benefits of that include tamper-proofing data and tackling corruption.

Identities / digital identities

Identities or digital identities digitally represent either organisations, individuals or devices such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Authentication of these identities is key to the iov42 Distributed Ledger Technology as it enables an ecosystem where the reputation of the participants reinforces digital trust into the network.

Know Your Customer (KYC)

A process through which a human being or organisation proves who they are in a strongly verifiable manner, normally via a trusted third party. The requirement to ‘know your customer’ comes from financial regulation in which to prevent fraud and money laundering, financial institutions must know who they are dealing with.

Low code

Refers to platforms that enable users to create applications by using business flow operations instead of writing lines of computer software code.

Node operator

An organisation that commits to running a data centre node as part of a zone. Node operators come together to form this fault tolerant network and govern the overall running of it.

Node

In the context of a Distributed Ledger Technology, a node is the computer that runs a copy of the Distributed Ledger Technology. Its purpose is to verify every batch of the network’s transaction.

In the iov42 architecture, nodes are data centres that leverage distributed computing and cloud supporting technologies to achieve high scalability and performance.

On chain

Data storage that is immutably recorded within a Distributed Ledger Technology forever.

Off chain

Data storage that happens outside of the blockchain.

Proofmesh

The iov42 Proofmesh® is our unique way of recording transactions. With our Proofmesh® mechanism, each identity and asset type combination has a distinct chain of transaction proofs. For every transaction involving two or more identities or assets, the chains of the respective identities and assets are combined, forming an ever-expanding mesh of cryptographically linked proofs. This approach increases scalability, performance, and security.

Proof of Work (PoW)

It requires members of a network (‘miners’) to expend effort solving an arbitrary mathematical puzzle to prevent anybody from gaming the system. From an energy efficiency perspective, PoW is the least efficient consensus mechanism.

Proof of Stake (PoS)

With Proof-of-stake, cryptocurrency owners validate block transactions based on the number of coins a validator stakes. PoS was created as an alternative to Proof of Work.

Proof of Authority (PoA)

Proof of Authority is a type of high performance, low energy consensus mechanism where the transactions are validated by approved nodes. In contrast to public Distributed Ledger Technologies, the nodes are known and need to earn and maintain the right to be validators. Thus, PoA incentivises validators to stake their reputation rather than computing power or cryptocurrencies. The computing power PoA consensus requires is drastically lower than PoS and PoW.

Product Authentication

Authentication is the verification process that proves that an identity or asset is real.

Permissioned

In contrast to public Distributed Ledger Technologies, permissioned ones require every new node to be approved by the existing ones before entering the network. This is particularly good for enterprises and governments who value privacy and the value that their reputation carries.

Sustainability

In the context of Distributed Ledger Technologies this refers to the amount of electrical energy required to secure data. Existing public Distributed Ledger Technologies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, use a Proof of Work algorithm in which computers around the world all use energy in a competition to decide which node will secure the next block. This brings security through randomising the network function, but at huge environmental impact as every node competes in parallel to win the block and gain the rewards thereof.
The iov42 Distributed Ledger Technology uses a Proof of Authority consensus protocol that uses less energy for each transaction.

Scalability

The property of a technology that can process ever increasing quantities of transactions within a reasonably bounded time. Primarily achieved through increasing the power of computer hardware that software runs on, or as in the iov42 technology case, by increasing the quantity of individual components within a data centre in order to achieve higher volume and velocity. This latter approach is known as horizontally scalable.

Zone / Zoned architecture

Zones are made up of node operators. This zoned architecture considers the complex regulatory environments that exist across geographies and industries. It allows the creation of local “zones” that can adhere to their own distinct governance or regulatory regime.