Glossary

Glossary of common terms and the

A

Algorithm is a set of specific cryptographic mechanisms and rules that encrypt a digital currency. The Proof-of-Work algorithm used by VeriBlock is vBlake.

AlphaNet is an alternative VeriBlock blockchain used for local or internal development.

Altchain, which stands for alternative chain, is a system using the block chain algorithm to achieve distributed consensus on a particular topic.

Altchain Integration Library represents the libraries for leveraging VeriBlock's Proof-of-Proof blockchain technology.

Altchain vBFI is BFI used to protect altchains, via securing them to VeriBlock. Sometimes will see "ABFI" for short in developer notation.

Altchain Reference Implementation

Altcoin refers to any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.

Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of subroutine definitions, protocols and tools for building application software.

ASIC, which stands for Application Specific Integrated Circuit, is a chip that is specifically designed to mine a certain cryptocurrency or a certain hashing algorithm. ASICs usually provide a significant advantage over graphics cards (GPUs) and CUP mining, such as they are powerful, cost effective and energy efficient, but have a centralized manufacture process.

ASIC-resistant is the use of a protocol and mining algorithm configured in such a way that using ASIC machines to mine cryptocurrency is either impossible or brings no significant benefit when compared to traditional GPU mining.

ATV is a chain of events and auditable information shared between an altchain, VeriBlock and Bitcoin. PoP miners spend VBK to take a snapshot of their altchain and insert that data into VeriBlock's chain. This prevents a successful attack to occur because to do so, an attacker would have to re-write history not only for the altchain, but for VeriBlock and Bitcoin as well. ATV = Altchain to VeriBlock.

B

Bitcoin Finality Indicator (BFI) See: "vBFI" (VeriBlock Bitcoin Finality Indicator)

Blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp and transaction data, generally represented as a Merkle Tree.

Bounties are rewards that VeriBlock gives away after a user successfully completes a certain task. Past examples of bounty tasks given include locating a bug in the SPV Wallet, testing PoW mining for the ProgPoW fork and writing scripts for the installation of NodeCore.

C

Centralization is the concentration of control under a single authority.

D

Decentralization is a distribution of nodes on the network not owned or controlled by a single party.

Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) is a consensus algorithm developed to secure a blockchain by representation of transactions within it. Designed as an implementation of technology-based democracy, DPoS uses a voting and election process to protect blockchains from centralization and malicious usage.

Double-spend attack (51%) occurs when a single miner or mining group takes majority control of a blockchain (51%)to create a double spend on the blockchain.

DTTP, Decentralized, Trustless, Transparent and Permissionless, is the manner of which VeriBlock allows any blockchain to inherit the full security of Bitcoin.

E

Early Attack Detection (EAD) see VeriBlock Bitcoin Finality Indicator (vBFI).

F

FPGA, field-programmable gate array, is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by the customer or designer after manufacturing.

Fork resolution is the protocol that is used to look at past PoP publications on the security-providing blockchain to determine the 'main' fork/chain on the security-inheriting blockchain in the event that a reorganization occurs.

G

Genesis block is the first block in any blockchain-based protocol. It is the foundation on which additional blocks are sequentially added to form a chain of blocks. Also referred to as block zero.

GPU mining is a type of mining that utilizes a gaming computer's graphics processing unit to mine coins.

GUI Wallet is the open-source wallet for VeriBlock coins that is available for desktop operating systems Linus, Windows and Mac.

H

Hard fork is a fork that force a blockchain to be split in two by requiring participants to flat out reject the blocks that aren't compatible with the new software.

Hashrate is the primary measure of a miner's performance.

K

Keystoning is a form of block reference braiding used to prevent a lack of publication for several contiguous security-inheriting blocks from compromising the security-inheriting blockchain's security. In keystoning, "keystone" blocks occur at a regular interval, unless experimental dynamic keystoning is employed, and act as the backbone of long-range consensus resolution. All blocks, including keystones themselves, reference a number of previous keystones, allowing the publication of one block's state data (which includes its keystone references) to provide context for a large section of the SI blockchain.

L

Linearly Weighted Moving Average (LWMA) is the difficulty adjustment algorithm that estimates current hashrate by the most recent difficulties and solve times by dividing the average difficulty by the LWMA of the solve times.

M

MainNet is the official VeriBlock network.

Merkle Tree is a data structure used to efficiently summarize and validate large data sets.

Merkle Root is a simple mathematical way to verify the data on a Merkle Tree to make sure data blocks passed between peers on a peer-to-peer network are whole, undamaged and unaltered.

Mining High Noon is the mining phase that began on September 14, 2018, at 1 p.m. EST, in which PoP miners began mining to Bitcoin MainNet instead of mining to Bitcoin TestNet prior to launching VBK MainNet.

Mining Sunrise

Mining Sunset

Multisig address

Multisig transaction

N

NodeCore is the full node daemon for VeriBlock.

NodeCore CommandLine (NC_CLI) is the command line to access an instance of NodeCore. See NodeCore CommandLine.

NodeCore SPV (Simple Payment Verification) is a light wallet that allows a user to see their balance and send VBK without downloading, syncing and running a full node.

O

OP_RETURN is a script opcode used to mark a transaction output as valid.

P

PoP mining enables blockchains to inherit and leverage the Proof-of-Work from a superior blockchain, such as Bitcoin. PoP mining works by: 1. Encapsulating an "endorsement" of a VeriBlock block in a Bitcoin transaction, submitting it to the BTC network and waiting for it to be included in a BTC block; 2. Submitting a Proof-of-Proof (PoP) transaction to NodeCore that proves your Bitcoin transaction was included in the BTC blockchain; 3. Receiving a reward for your PoP transaction, which is paid out 500 blocks after the VeriBlock block endorsed by the miner. In short, PoP mining allows VeriBlock to inherit the security of the Bitcoin blockchain.

PoP payouts

PoW mining, short for Proof-of-Work mining, protects the VeriBlock network. VeriBlock recently updated the PoW algorithm from vBlake to ProgPoW, which is ASIC resistant, and will help with decentralization and making the VeriBlock network more secure. TO DO: Add fork height when ProgPoW is implemented.

Proof-of-Capacity (PoC) is a consensus mechanism algorithm used in blockchains that allows the mining devices in the network to use their available hard drive space to decide the mining rights, instead of using the mining device's computing power (as in PoW) or the miner's stake in the coins (as in PoS).

Proof-of-Proof (PoP) is a novel consensus protocol invented by VeriBlock, Inc., to protect alt chains against 51% attacks. PoP allows any blockchain, including sidechains and permissioned ledgers, to inherit the full security of Bitcoin in a truly decentralized, trustless, transparent and permissionless (DTTP) manner. It does so by gamifying the publication of data representing a blockchain's present state to Bitcoin, directly or indirectly, such that any user can participate and receive compensation for enabling blockchains to inherit Bitcoin's security. VeriBlock's PoP technology is designed to protect against 51% attacks. For an alt chain, the flow is Alt -> VeriBlock -> Bitcoin.

Proof-of-Stake (PoS) is a type of consensus algorithm for blockchain networks that is based on a randomly selected state of validators who "stake" the native network tokens by locking them into the blockchain to produce and approve blocks.

Proof-of-Work (PoW) is a consensus mechanism protocol that deters denial-of-service attacks and other service abuses, such as spam on a network, by requiring some work from the service requester, usually meaning processing time by a computer. Bitcoin uses the Hashcash Proof-of-Work system, which is used for block generation. In order for a block to be accepted by network participants, miners must complete a PoW, which covers all of the data in the block. The difficulty of this work is adjusted so as to limit the rate at which new blocks can be generated by the network to one every 10 minutes.

ProgPoW is a Proof-of-Work algorithm designed to close the efficiency gap available to specialized ASICs that utilizes almost all parts of commodity hardware (GPUs).

S

SegWit, also known as Segregated Witness, is a Bitcoin protocol upgrade, which was implemented on August 23, 2017, that was designed to fix an issue called transaction malleability, which enable BTC transaction data to be changed before the network processed these transactions, and allows Bitcoin to keep the integrity of transactions while also packing more of them into any single 1 megabyte block. VeriBlock adopted SegWit and released a SegWit-enabled PoP miner, which caused individual PoP transactions to consume less space (weight) on Bitcoin.

SHA-256, which stands for Secure Hash Algorithm, is a member of the SHA-2 cryptographic has functions designed by NSA. It is the algorithm used in Proof-of-Work mining, and is used to improve security and privacy in Bitcoin addresses.

SI refers to security-inheriting blockchain.

SP refers to security-providing blockchain.

Soft fork is a blockchain update made without splitting the chain in two.

T

testnet is an alternative VeriBlock blockchain to be used for testing. TestNet coins are separate and distinct from actual VBK, and do not hold value, which allows VeriBlock developers and testers to experiment. TestNet has a significantly lower difficulty, such that minimal hash can push through transactions.

tVBK is the official TestNet VeriBlock symbol. VeriBlock's TestNet is an alternative VeriBlock blockchain to be used for testing with testnet coins, which have no monetary value.

TxID is the abbreviation for transaction.

V

VBK is the symbol for the native utility token/coin of the VeriBlock blockchain. The VeriBlock blockchain provides an aggregation layer of proof and its coin provides a means for paying the decentralized VeriBlock PoW and PoP miners in a way controlled completely by the VeriBlock blockchain protocol. As such, the VeriBlock coin serves as a price discovery mechanism that allows the efficient allocation of the scare resource of proof, allowing all blockchains to inherit Bitcoin's PoW security.

vBlake is the Proof-of-Work algorithm originally used by VeriBlock, which was designed to facilitate decentralization at every stage of the natural progression of mining hardware (CPU->GPU->FPGA->ASIC). VeriBlock switched to vProgPow

VeriBlock is a blockchain framework that enables rapid, widespread and secure adoption of Proof-of-Proof (PoP) security for other blockchains, enabling double-spend attack prevention, protection against sustained 51% attacks and early attack detection.

VeriBlock Altchain Integration Factory (vAIF) is a set of components to make it as easy as possible for altchains to obtain PoP security by integrating with VeriBlock. This includes at least four parts: Github code reference implementation per family with a PR showing the delta, running demo environment to see that reference implementation in action, documentation to show the steps involved and a trained developer team to assist with onboarding.

VeriBlock Bitcoin Finality Indicator (vBFI) is a software that produces block-security statistics that proactively looks at publications for a particular security-inheriting chain to determine whether it's mathematically possible for an attacker to reorganize the security-inheriting chain without also reorganizing the security-providing chain. In the example of VeriBlock or altchains being secured using VeriBlock, BFI indicates whether it's mathematically possible to reorganize a particular VeriBlock/altchain block without 51% attacking Bitcoin, and if it isn't, how many Bitcoin blocks would have to be reversed; and whether an attacker is currently publishing malicious fingerprints of a reorganization of the VeriBlock/altchain, and if so, which blocks are in danger of being reorganized from the published fingerprints of the attack.

vProgPow The Proof-of-Work algorithm currently used by VeriBlock, since MainNet block 1512000 (Monday September 21st, 2020). See: Home_vProgPoW

VTB VeriBlock-to-Bitcoin proofs view previous transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, made by PoP miners, and can be used to verify or audit that history has not been re-written in order to determine that nothing bad has happened on the VeriBlock blockchain. PoP miners spend Bitcoin to take a "snapshot" of the VeriBlock (VBK) Blockchain and they insert that information into the Bitcoin Blockchain.

W

Wallet encryption is a form of security that uses AES-256-CBC to encrypt only the private keys that are held in a wallet.

Whitepaper is an authoritative report, written by Maxwell Sanchez, VeriBlock CTO, and Justin Fisher, VeriBlock CEO, that concisely describes VeriBlock and the fundamentals of the Proof-of-Proof consensus protocol.

Z

Zero-Knowledge Proof is a situation in which each of two parties in a transaction is able to verify to each other that they have a particular set of information, while at the same time not revealing what that information is.

zk-SNARKs stands for Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge and is the protocol of Zero-Knowledge Proofs.