Glossary

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2FA

See Two Factor Authentication.

Account Control

This can be thought of as enhanced multisignature methods. It enables users to create accounts that can only transact with the approval of holders of specified Assets or Currencies, or to make transactions subject to Votes on spendings.

Account Leasing

You can lease your forging balance to another account for a limited amount of time. The account that receives the lease gains additional forging power from your stake, but does not acquire rights to do anything with your NXT, for example spend, transfer or re-lease it to others.

AE

See Asset Exchange.

AntiNXT

Each NXT has a corresponding antiNXT. These are a special type of NXT that have negative values and exist only in the genesis account. Any NXT sent to the genesis account is destroyed by cancelling their antiNXT counterpart. This makes sense as -1 + 1 = 0, or in words antiNXT + NXT = Nothing.

Asset

An asset is a token that is traded on the asset exchange. They are equivalent to coloured coins in other cryptocurrencies. Assets can represent almost anything, e.g. physical silver, shares of profits in a company, a portion of a basket of other assets, etc. You can explore assets from within the Nxt clients, on the nxtforum.org assets board or blockchain explorers.

Asset Exchange

The Asset Exchange is Nxt's decentralised asset token marketplace. It is built into the Nxt protocol and does not require a centralised third party.

AT

See Automated Transactions.

Automated Transactions

Work is being done on a Turing-complete scripting layer that can operate on top of the Nxt blockchain. This Nxt feature will allow Distributed Autonomous Corporations (DACs) to issue transactions automatically, based on a set of well-defined rules.

BCNext

BCNext is the founder of Nxt and wrote the initial version of Nxt's code. BCNext saw Bitcoin as a failed attempt to create a digital economy and so created Nxt as a platform to build a digital economy upon. He first appeared on Bitcointalk with a post announcing Nxt on 28th September 2013 and was a self-declared Sockpuppet of a long-standing Bitcointalk member. BCNext was involved in the early development of Nxt but their last post was on the 8th November 2013. BCNext then began to communicate through Come-from-Beyond. BCNext left the project once he was satisfied the community had established itself in April/May 2014. Come-from-Beyond now has his notes and planned implementation of the announced and unannounced features of Nxt.

BCT

Abbreviation of bitcointalk.org, the most popular cryptocurrency forum.

Bitcointalk.org

Bitcointalk.org (or BCT as it is sometimes referred to) is a website originally for the discussion of Bitcoin that has grown to be the place for discussion of all things in the cryptocurrency world. As Bitcoin is the grand-daddy of all crypto currencies, this is most often the place new cryptocurrencies go to announce their arrival and it was no different for Nxt in the Autumn of 2013. It was also the host for the Nxt Megathread until it was locked on the 14th April 2014 after amassing 2763 pages.

Block

A block is the collection of all transactions that occured within a block time period. The blockchain is the collection of all blocks on the fork you're on.

'Block' is also frequently used to mean the block time period, e.g. I sent the transaction 3 blocks ago.

Blockchain

The blockchain is the public record of every transaction ever done in Nxt from the start of the Nxt network. Most cryptocurrencies are based off blockchains. A blockchain is sometimes referred to as a 'public ledger'.

Blockchain Explorer

A blockchain explorer lets you browse and search for information in the blockchain. This is possible since the blockchain is public information. This information includes transaction IDs, asset purchases, alias ownership, etc. The blockchain explorers Nxt has are constantly being developed. See explorers available

Block Height

The block height is the number of blocks generated since the beginning of the Nxt blockchain. The genesis block has height 0.

Block Size

Block size is the memory required to store a full block. In Nxt, this is 32kB.

Block Time

Block time is the length of time between the generation of each new block. In Nxt, the average block time is ~1.5 minutes. Once transparent forging is fully implemented, the block time will always be exactly 1 minute.

Bots

A bot is a computer program. In the case of Nxt, bots have been programmed to try all weak passphrases (such as ‘Dog’, ‘12345’ and ‘opensesame’) and open their account. They continuously scan the Blockchain looking for transfers into these accounts. The bots then automatically log into the account and move the NXT to an account they control. This often only takes a matter of minutes from the incoming transfer and nothing can be done to retrieve the stolen NXT. It is therefore VERY IMPORTANT to use a strong passphrase to ensure that your NXT is not stolen. Also see Brainwallet.

Bots that automatically perform trades on the Asset Exchange have also been written.

Bounty

Bounties are rewards for completing specific tasks. People may offer bounties for e.g. writing an article, uploading an instructional video on YouTube, carrying out translation work and many other things. Anyone with the money and desire to see something implemented in Nxt can offer bounties.

Brainwallet

A brainwallet is the concept of all accounts being accessible at all times to everyone in any location, through only a password. There's no need for a login name (this can be regarded as part of the password) or a wallet.dat file. So the 'wallet' lies entirely within your brain, hence the name.

Nxt uses the brainwallet concept. For example, anybody can access account associated with the passphrase ‘dog’ (it unlocks account number 14484691315565383597 and has already been used). Your public key, private key and account number are deterministically generated from the passphrase alone. Hence, your passphrase is your account. If someone has your passphrase, they have your account.

Bots can automatically generate passphrases from common words, generate account numbers from them and store all this in a database. They can watch the blockchain for new transactions, then swoop in and steal any amounts transferred into the accounts in their database. So it is VERY IMPORTANT to use a strong passphrase to ensure your NXT is not stolen.

Bter

See Bter.com

Bter.com

Bter.com is a centralised exchange that has the largest trading volume between NXT and Bitcoin.

BTT

Abbreviation of bitcointalk.org, the most popular cryptocurrency forum.

CCT

See Cross Chain Transactions.

CfB

See Come-from-Beyond.

Client

A client is a computer program used to access the Nxt platform core features and other services added by service sroviders. The Nxt Reference Software includes a default client, as well as Wesley's user interface. Nxt has clients for Windows, Mac and more.

Clone

A clone refers to a new crypto currency that copies the source code of an existing crypto, making only minimal changes. You should use a different passphrase for Nxt clones to protect yourself from a clone attack.

Coin Shuffling

A privacy feature which enables users to mix their funds quickly and efficiently with other users' funds by creating a random mapping between the existing user accounts and a new recipient accounts provided by the users.

Coloured Coins

See Asset. This is Nxt's implementation of coloured coins.

Come-from-Beyond

Come-from-Beyond is an important developer for the initial implementation of Nxt and is a continuing forum member and Nxt development contributer. He was originally employed on contract directly by BCNext from the start of Nxt in late 2013. After BCNext stopped posting from the BCNext account, he was the conduit through which BCNext communicated. Come-from-Beyond’s contract came to an end on the 3rd April 2014, the day before the beginning of George Orwell’s book ‘1984’. He now works as freelance developer to complete the ideas BCNext passed on, and to build his own projects on top of the Nxt Platform.

Cross Chain Transaction

This is a transaction that involves more than one blockchain. This might be done on a forum trading thread or through an exchange, but both of these methods require you to trust either the trading partner or the exchange. Ideally, cross-chain transactions could be "trustless", meaning that they are handled by automated agents or systems that verify assets and balances between traders, and then broker those trades between them so that trust is not required.

DarkNXT

Occasionally, someone could accidentally send Nxt to an account that nobody is using. This was possible before public keys were required the first transaction to an account. These Nxt still remain and are inaccessible until a passphrase for that account is discovered and used, the Nxt in the account is referred to as "DarkNXT".

Dump

The act of selling, usually in a large amounts and in a sort space of time. Dumping frequently causes prices to drop. Examples of use are: "There is a lot of dumping going on today" and "I have just dumped my LiteCoin".


Economic Clustering

Economic Clustering is an extra consensus rule that forces users to stick to a branch with the highest rate of transactions belonging to the same economic cluster. This protects Nxt from long-range attacks from many blocks away.

Effective stake

All transactions must be confirmed 1440 times before they can forge. Your effective stake, then, is the balance in your account that has at least 1440 confirmations.

Escrow

An escrow is a trusted person or entity (such as an exchange) that acts as an intermediary for a trade. Escrows are usually used when people do not meet face to face and where insufficient trust exists between those wanting to trade. Bob has digital music that he wishes to sell for NXT and Alice wants to buy digital music for NXT. If Alice first sends her payment directly to Bob, Bob could walk away with her money and never be seen again. So Alice asks and Bob agrees to use Jim as an escrow. Alice and Bob both send their sides of the trade to Jim and once Jim has received both the music and the NXT, he gives Bob his NXT and Alice her music. Both parties have to trust the escrow.

Nxt is developing trustless escrows through the asset exchange and automated transactions that would make traditional escrows obsolete.

Exchange

An Exchange usually refers to one of many centralised places where you can go to convert one form of currency into another. Examples in Nxt are DGEX, Bter and even the humble trading thread. Part of the Nxt Platform is the Asset Exchange that is a decentralised exchange that aims to make centralised Exchanges redundant. People will be able to trade with each other directly, securely and cheaply and not just currencies but any other assets users choose to create (shares, bonds or contracts). As there are no centralised servers to attack, the Asset Exchange can’t be shut down. You don’t have to store your money in a third parties account so disasters like Mt. Gox will become a thing of the past. You money is secured directly by the Nxt Blockchain inside your own account.


Fees

See Transaction Fees.

Founder

Nxt's founders are the 73 people who sent bitcoin to secure an initial stake in Nxt. All of Nxt's coins were generated on November 25, 2013 and distributed in the genesis block to the founders, based on the amount of bitcoin sent.

Forge (or Forging)

Forging is the process by which nodes on the Nxt network bundle transactions into blocks, which are then added to the blockchain. This is similar to "mining" in other cryptocurrencies, except that there are no new coins given out as a block reward. The block reward for the forging account consists solely of transaction fees paid in the block.

Genesis Account

This is the first Nxt account created. Its purpose was to issue Nxt to the initial Nxt investors (known as Founders, which are distinct from Stakeholders). The initial balance was zero so once all 1 billion tokens were issued, the balance of the Genesis Account became negative 1 billion. Any NXT that is now sent to the Genesis Account interacts with its negative counterpart (known as AntiNXT) and both are destroyed. The Genesis Account no longer has a balance of exactly 1 billion negative, as some users have sent some of their NXT there (for unknown reasons, perhaps curiosity). Nxt is Hardcoded so that no more coins can be issued from the Genesis Account (Transactions from Accounts with negative balances are rejected). Any NXT sent to the Genesis Account cannot be recovered and is gone forever. The Genesis Account Password has been published. See Genesis Account Passphrase.


Genesis Account Number

The genesis account number is 1739068987193023818 (NXT-MRCC-2YLS-8M54-3CMAJ).

Genesis Account Passphrase

The passphrase “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” gives any user access to the genesis account. It is the opening line of George Orwell’s ‘1984’, which begins on the 4th April 1984.

Hash

Data of a fixed length that is the output from a hash function.

Hash Function

A hash function is a step-by-step mathematical procedure that converts data of any length into data of a fixed, short length. An example of a hash function is SHA256, which is used in Nxt.

HiberNXT

See DarkNXT.

InstantDEX

InstantDEX is a service built on top of Nxt’s multigateway service and Nxt asset exchange. The goal of InstantDEX is to allow for near real-time trading of NXT and any Nxt asset against any other Nxt asset, not just Multigateway assets.

It has achieved ~5 second transaction times in a proof-of-concept demonstration, prior to any optimization. After optimization, the goal is to achieve transactions in the ~3 second timeframe. The multigateway will need to be trusted to redeem assets but almost all of InstantDEX will be decentralized. Due to the nature of the transactions, those with good internet connections will get better performance than those with bad internet connections. InstantDEX is still in development and the discussion thread can be found here.

Judgement System

The Judgement System is a planned reputation system which also includes a mechanism for judges to make decisions on the conduct of users. Users will form agreements (written in plain English and encrypted). If one of the parties violates an agreement, judges can be asked to judge. Users can choose the judges they trust and the reputation of users' accounts will depend on decisions made by these judges.

Leased Forging

See Account Leasing.

LockedNXT

See DarkNXT.

LostNXT

See DarkNXT.

Marketing Committee

See NXTmarketingfund Committee.

MC

MC is the abbreviation of Marketing Committee. See NXTmarketingfund Committee.

Megathread

The Nxt megathread is the main Nxt discussion thread on bitcointalk.org's alternative cryptocurrencies subforum. On the 14th April 2014, the 2763 page thread was locked and all discussion moved to nxtforum.org to allow better organisation of the myriad of projects ongoing throughout the Nxt ecosystem. The thread can be found at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345619.0.

This is also sometimes called the Nxt pub thread.

MGW

See Multigateway.

Mining

Mining is using computing power to solve difficult mathematical problems in order to produce a block. Those using their computer to try and solve these problems are known as miners and this is the basis for Bitcoin and other proof-of-work cryptocurrencies. The first miner to solve is rewarded with a number of the coins being mined. Success in mining is directly proportional to the amount of computing power available to the miner, which has led to a mining arms race to create the most powerful mining systems. It has also led to the rise of mining pools.

Mining Pool

Members of a mining pool combine their computing power to increase their chances of the group successfully mining a block. The members of the pool then share any coins that the mining pool is rewarded with in proportion to the computer power they add to the pool. e.g. if you account for 20 percent of the pool's computing power, you get 20 percent of the rewards.

Nxt's equivalent is a forging pool which stakeholders lease their account balance to.

Monetary System

The Monetary System will allow you to create currencies backed by NXT. New coins are created by "locking" NXT in special accounts. You cannot lock more NXTs into the coin once it is created so the supply can’t be inflated. Unlike Proof-of-Burn, this process can be reversed and locked NXT can be recovered. e.g if you destroy 7% of the supply of the created coin then you get 7% of the locked NXT back. Transaction fees for coins created in the Monetary System can only be paid in NXT. To join the discussion, visit https://nxtforum.org/monetary-system/.

Moon

Where all shibes and Nxters want to go someday.


MS

See Monetary System.

nextcoin.org

nextcoin.org was established early on in the life of Nxt for the use of the community by Graviton, one of the Founders of Nxt and owner of the dgex.com exchange. nextcoin.org is one of two main discussion forums for news and development of Nxt, the other being nxtforum.org, and both are playing important roles in the success of Nxt.


NIP

See Nxt Improvement Proposal.


Node

A system that is running the Nxt server software


Nodecoin

Nodecoin is a proof of concept coin and the first coin to be built on top of the Nxt Platform. After initial testing, full implementation was postponed to allow other higher priority projects to progress and allow a full discussion. The concept: Nodeminer, the computer program supporting Nodecoin, runs alongside your Nxt Forging Account. For each Block it reports the Peers it is connected to back to the Nodecoin pool server. The pool server then tabulates the results and allocates Nodecoins based on the number of times your Node was listed as a Peer. The more people connected to your Node, the more you get reported to the pool server and the more Nodecoins you get. The Nodeminer would also get an extra share bonus for having reported to the pool server.

Nodecoins cannot be mined and only one share is allocated per IP address/Nxt Account. There are 100 Nodecoins distributed per block. Nodeminer can embed a NXT health monitor, which will allow the detection of when the network is in a fork, or under attack. Nodeminer has potential as a method for users to sell their computer resources in exchange for Nodecoins. There are many things that a user's computer is uniquely qualified to do such as decentralized source of CPU, bandwidth and storage.


NQT

See nxtQuant.


NRS

See Nxt Reference Software.


Null Account

The "Null" account is the account that the Client unlocks when you press enter without entering a passphrase at the prompt. It is called the “Null” Account as it has no passphrase, or more correctly, the passphrase is defined as what is between the following square brackets thus []. Nothing, not even a a space. It opens account 3791936988034107349 which has had many transactions in its history as people have used the account to test Nxt and some have used it by mistake. As with all accounts with Weak Passphrases (or no passphrase in this case), the Nxt transferred there are more often than not stolen by Bots. This is a distinctive attribute of a Brainwallet and it is therefore VERY IMPORTANT to use a Strong Passphrase to ensure that your NXT is not stolen. Also See Brainwallet and Bots.


Nxt

Nxt usually refers to the Nxt Platform. The use and meaning of Nxt and NXT is not universal so you should check the context and with the user if unsure.


NXT

NXT usually refers to the currency/tokens used on the Nxt Platform (notice the use of capitals). An illustrative example to demonstrate common usage would be, “Bob used his Nxt Client to transfer 100NXT to Alice”. The use and meaning of Nxt and NXT is not universal so you should check the context and with the user if unsure.


Nxt Account Miner

The Nxt Account Miner is a computer program that attempts to find a Passphrase match to Nxt Accounts that don’t have any outgoing transactions or haven't forged a block. These are referred to as DarkNXT accounts. An outgoing transaction in a Nxt account increases the encryption from 64 bit to 256 bit (as a Public Key for the account is registered on the Blockchain) and makes it practically impossible for an Account with a Public Key and 256bit encryption to be cracked by this software.

When you start the program, it begins searching from a random point. If you restart the program, it will begin from a different point in search space. The chances are always equal in finding an account so there is no need to begin from the last point that was checked.

It is currently a bad use of resources to mine accounts as it would take more resources than you would get in return. With the code attempting to crack the top 310 accounts simultaneously and is able to do 1 billion searches per second, the average would be close to one year to find one of the 310 accounts passphrases. Two years if the speed is 500 million per second. Four years if it's 250 million per second and so on. However this will change as the Nxt price increases as it may be worthwhile if the average account contains, for example, $5000 and as average computing power increases. One Account identified as a DarkNXT Account contains 500 Bitcoins.

As the NXT Account Miner software is unable to tell if an account is DarkNXT or just an account someone is using that hasn’t had an outgoing transaction, it is very important to ensure each new account you open has had an outgoing transaction (transfer NXT, create an Alias or forge a block) to give it a Public Key and 256 bit protection. This would put you beyond the reach of the NXT Account Miner.


Nxt Core

See Nxt Platform.


Nxt Ecosystem

See Nxt Platform.


Nxt Improvement Proposal

Anyone can suggest improvements to Nxt through a Nxt Improvement Proposal (abbreviated to NIP) that will be considered by the relevant developers and/or Nxt committees. Suggestions then have a chance of being implemented within Nxt. The Nxt Improvement Proposal sub forum can be found at: https://nxtforum.org/nxt-improvement-proposals/


NXT Indirect Mining

See Nxt Multipool.


NXT Mining

You can't mine NXTs directly. However there is a method to accumulate NXTs using mining hardware, see NXT Indirect Mining.


NXT Multipool

The NXT Multipool is the process of using existing mining hardware to mine the most profitable crypto currencies and then periodically selling them and using the proceeds to buy NXTs on the open market. In this way, crypto currency miners can use their existing hardware to transition to Nxt's second generation platform. Nxt remains 100% Proof of Stake as it is profit from mining other coins that is used to buy NXTs on the open market. If the profit was used to buy US dollars, that wouldn't make US dollars Proof of Work so neither can Nxt be. This process has a downward pressure on the price of the coins mined and an upward pressure on the price of NXTs. Also see Mining Pool.


Nxt Platform

Nxt Platform refers to the ‘ecosystem’ of Nxt core features. This includes Asset Exchange (AE), Automated Transactions (AT), Arbitrary Messages (AM) and Transparent Forging (TF) as examples. These are distinct from Service Providers who do not form part of the core of Nxt.


Nxt Reference Software

The Nxt Reference Software consists of the server software and a simple client. Support for the client will be discontinued eventually, once 3rd party clients are available across many platforms.

Nxt Technology Tree

The Nxt Technology Tree is a website that contains all the current and planned features of Nxt, a description of each and how they relate to each other to determine the order of development. For example, the Asset Exchange is required before the Voting System can be implemented. On another stream of development, Knowledge Base is being developed. Once all three of these technologies are developed, then it allows for Fact Digitization. More information on these technologies and more can be explored at nxttechnologytree.com


nxtforum.org

nxtforum.org was set up to allow better organisation of the various Nxt projects being worked on simultaneously in the Nxt Megathread and a few weeks after the launch the Megathread was locked. nxtfroum.org is one of two main discussion forums for news and development of Nxt, the other being nextcoin.org, and both are playing important roles in the success of Nxt. Also see Megathread.


NXTinfrastructurefund

The NXTinfrastructurefund represents the proportion of the Unclaimed Funds allocated for the use of support of the Nxt Infrastructure. At the formation of the fund, there were around 2,900,000 NXT available for allocation to infrastructure projects. Also see Unclaimed Funds and NXTinfrastructurefund Committee.


NXTinfrastructurefund Committee

The job of the elected NXTinfrastructurefund Committee is to review the infrastructure proposals of anyone who requests them to do so, for example running public nodes or paying for servers. If approved, the desired funds for the proposal are transferred to the requester from the NXTinfrastructurefund. The NXTinfrastructurefund Committee are not intended to provide the direction of Nxt but only to shepherd the NXTinfrastructurefund and support Nxt until they have allocated all of the NXT in the fund. The NXTinfrastructurefund subforum, where you can make a request for funds for your project, can be found at https://nxtforum.org/infrastructure-committee.


NXTmarketingfund

The NXTmarketingfund represents the proportion of the Unclaimed Funds allocated for the use of marketing Nxt. At the formation of the fund, there were around 2,900,000 NXT available for allocation to marketing projects. Also see Unclaimed Funds and NXTmarketingfund Committee.


NXTmarketingfund Committee

The job of the elected NXTmarketingfund Committee is to review the marketing proposals of anyone who requests them to do so. If approved, the desired funds for the proposal are transferred to the requester from the NXTmarketingfund. The NXTmarketingfund Committee are not intended to provide the direction of Nxt but only to shepherd the NXTmarketingfund and support Nxt until they have allocated all of the NXT in the fund. The NXTmarketingfund Committee often just refer to themselves as “Marketing Committee” or just “MC”. The NXTmarketingfund subforum, where you can make a request for funds for your project, can be found at https://nxtforum.org/marketing-committee.


nxtQuant

This is the name given to 0.00000001 NXT (or 10^-8 in mathematical shorthand) in the Nxt code and abbreviated to NQT. nxtQuants are equivalent to satoshis in Bitcoin and allows NXTs to be highly divisible, making them tradable with coins that have values many decimal places higher or lower than Nxt. nxtQuant is currently a temporary name.


NXTtechfund

The NXTtechfund represents the proportion of the Unclaimed Funds allocated and private donations for supporting the technical development of Nxt. At the formation of the fund, there were around 3,900,000 NXT available for allocation to technical development projects (2,900,000 from the Unclaimed Funds and 1,000,000 from a private donation). Also see Unclaimed Funds and NXTtechfund Committee.


NXTtechfund Committee

The job of the elected NXTtechfund Committee is to review the technical development proposals of anyone who requests them to do so, for example if you wish to have monetary support for the service you wish to build on top of Nxt. If approved, the desired funds for the proposal are transferred to the requester from the NXTtechfund. The NXTtechfund Committee are not intended to provide the direction of Nxt but only to shepherd the NXTtechfund and support Nxt until they have allocated all of the NXT in the fund. The NXTtechfund subforum, where you can make a request for funds for your project, can be found at https://nxtforum.org/technical-development-committee.


nxttechnnologytree.com

See Nxt Technology Tree.


NXTventure

NXTventure is a virtual company that is listed on the Asset Exchange and is akin to a Venture Capital/Investment bank hybrid. It makes investments in companies and then offers the assets of them via Asset Exchange. NXTventure plans to have about one new company offered per month and at the end of the month, the leftover assets after the Asset Exchange sales are given out as a dividend to the assetholders.


Peerexplorer.com

Peerexplorer gives live information on the Nxt network including the number of nodes online, the version being used, the estimated cost of running the network, the top known peers, the average network ping time, a world map of node locations and other more detailed information on each node.


Phasing

Phasing splits the processing of transactions into phases and this is a big step to true decentralization. Phasing will implement Account Control and will make cold storage, escrow and few other things obsolete. Full details due to be released in April.


Private Key

Your private key is a string of characters used to sign transactions. This happens in the background, and you should never need to worry about it. Never reveal your private key to anyone! Since only your account knows your private key, it gives a way for other nodes to verify that transactions are indeed from you.


Private node

An instance of Nxt, running on a computer or device, that is only intended for use by a single account holder. Most "home computer" installations are of this type.

Proof-of-Work

Proof of work is cryptographically verifiable evidence that, on average, significant computing power (i.e. work) has been spent to solve a problem. The difficulty of producing such evidence is the foundation of the security of many early cryptocurrencies. e.g. Bitcoin's proof of work is finding a nonce such that SHA256(string + nonce) is less than a given target. For small targets, finding such a nonce requires many trials on average, but verifying that a given nonce satisfies the condition is quick.

Proof-of-Stake

Proof-of-stake is cryptographically verifiable evidence of ownership of previous data on the Glossary#Blockchain blockchain. Usually this data is an account balance (i.e. stake in the cryptocurrency). Proof-of-stake is the foundation of the security of many '2nd generation' cryptocurrencies like Nxt.

Pub Thread

The Nxt Pub Thread is the general, anything goes discussion thread hosted on nxtforum.org. It can be found atː https://nxtforum.org/general-discussion/nxt-pub-thread-2500-pages-on-nxtforum-org-or-bust/ It was intended to move the Megathread from page 2500 onwards from bitcointalk.org to a dedicated Nxt forum but users still use both threads for pub gossip and hanging out. See Megathread.


Public Key

Your public key is a special string of characters that other nodes use to verify your transactions. As the name suggests, this information is supposed to be public.

When receiving your first Nxt, you'll need to tell the sender your public key. This only needs to be done for this first time, after that the network will know your public key.

Note that your public key is not your private key; no one else should know your private key.


Public node

A node that is available on the Internet. These nodes are heavily relied-upon to support and reinforce the Nxt network.


Public Ledger

A Public Ledger is a common description used to describe a Blockchain. See Blockchain.


Reed Solomon

Reed Solomon is an error correction method used in coding theory. It is specifically used in Nxt to display your original account ID in the Reed Solomon format. As an example, the Reed Solomon format for the Genesis Account Number of 1739068987193023818 is "NXT-MRCC-2YLS-8M54-3CMAJ".

The Reed Solomon format isn't a new account, just a different way of displaying your account number but it has two big advantages.

First, it is easier to read and check if it is correct. Sort sections of letters are more human readable than a string of up to twenty numbers.

Secondly, it can detect if you input up to two digits of the Reed Solomon address incorrectly and will even suggest corrections. This will reduce the likelihood of sending your NXT to the wrong account.

Users who have only used NRS v1.1.3 or later will only know the Reed Solomon format of addresses.

SC

See Smart Contracts

Services

A Service is a feature built on top of Nxt but does not form part of the Nxt core, in the same way that email is built on top of the internet. Gmail is not integral to the internet, it is built on top of it. Services are built by third party developers known as Service Providers who are often not directly linked to the development of Nxt. By virtue of a Service being built on top of Nxt, they often make use of the Nxt core features. Examples of Services are InstantDex and NXTCash. Other examples are limited by people’s time and inclination and could include shops, financial exchanges, email, twitter and facebook. Also see Nxt Platform and Service Providers.


Service Providers

Service Providers are developers who make use of Nxt to provide Services ‘on top’ of the Nxt Platform. See Services.

Smart Contracts

A high-level scripting language for querying the blockchain database and automating simple transactions based on the data. It is currently being developed by Come-from-Beyond. Unlike automated transactions, the smart contract language is not Turing-complete.

Stakeholder

Anyone who holds any amount of Nxt.


Sybil Attack

A Sybil attack is when someone creates more than one user/account for themselves and uses it to their own advantage. Examples might be creating many bitcointalk accounts to be able to sway votes or claim additional stakes of a cryptocoin IPO. In Nxt, any caps to forging power or punitive measures to large accounts would just result in those effected creating more accounts to reduce the amounts in each, which can also be considered a Sybil Attack to avoid the punitive measures.


Time Warp

Time Warp is a feature of Transparent Forging that will support very high transactions per second within Nxt. Full details will be released in April.


Transaction

Transactions are anything that causes your Account to interact with the Nxt Blockchain. As examples these include sending/receiving Nxt, assigning an alias and asset exchange transactions. Interactions with the Nxt Blockchain require that a Transaction Fee is paid and this can only be paid in NXT. Also see Transaction Fees.


Transaction Fees

A transaction fee is paid in Nxt for each transaction that is recorded in the Nxt blockchain. The main purpose of fees is to discourage spamming of the blockchain. The transaction fees in each block are awarded to the block forger.

The fees are currently set atː

Send any amount of NXTː 1 NXT

Receive any amount of NXTː 0 NXT

Registering an Aliasː 1 NXT

Send an Arbitrary Messageː 1 NXT

Issue an Asset on the AEː 1000 NXT

The high cost (1000 NXT) of issuing an asset is to discourage squatting of asset names.

Future changes to the transaction fees are planned.

Two Factor Authentication

As the name suggests, two pieces of information (factors) are required for an action to be carried out (authenticated). This can be seen in practice on some exchanges that require two passwords. Usually, one of the password must be related to a physical object that the user can carry with her. For instance, Two Factors Authentication could entail an ATM card and a PIN number or a password and a SMS received on the user's phone.

The purpose of Two Factor Authentication is to give extra protection against hackers, as they would have to crack two independent passwords to be able to move your money out of your account.

Tx

See Transaction

Unclaimed Funds

Once the Genesis Block was created, the Founders were asked to claim the NXT that they were due. Eventually, 73 founders came forward but some of those who had initially expressed an interest in Nxt didn’t so the remaining NXT were referred to as Unclaimed Funds. On the 8th February 2014, there were approximately 9 million unclaimed coins remaining under the control of Come-from-Beyond. Come-from-Beyond stated that (s)he will destroy the unclaimed NXT on the 3rd April 2014 by sending them back to the Genesis Block unless the NXT community organised and agreed to a use for the Unclaimed Funds. The outcome was the formation of the NXTtechfund, NXTmarketingfund and NXTinfrastructurefund, their elected committees and the transfer of the Unclaimed Funds to the three new funds for the development, promotion and support of Nxt.