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Blockchain General

BLS Signature

A digital signature scheme (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) based on bilinear pairings over elliptic curves that uniquely enables signature aggregation: multiple signatures on the same or different messages can be combined into a single compact signature verifiable in one operation. BLS signatures are used in Ethereum 2.0 for aggregating validator attestations and are planned for Solana (SIMD-0134) to reduce vote transaction overhead. The aggregation property dramatically reduces bandwidth and storage costs for consensus.

IDbls-signatureAliasBoneh-Lynn-Shacham
Plain meaning

Plain meaning

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A digital signature scheme (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) based on bilinear pairings over elliptic curves that uniquely enables signature aggregation: multiple signatures on the same or different messages can be combined into a single compact signature verifiable in one operation. BLS signatures are used in Ethereum 2.0 for aggregating validator attestations and are planned for Solana (SIMD-0134) to reduce vote transaction overhead. The aggregation property dramatically reduces bandwidth and storage costs for consensus.

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BLS Signature (bls-signature)
Category: Blockchain General
Definition: A digital signature scheme (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) based on bilinear pairings over elliptic curves that uniquely enables signature aggregation: multiple signatures on the same or different messages can be combined into a single compact signature verifiable in one operation. BLS signatures are used in Ethereum 2.0 for aggregating validator attestations and are planned for Solana (SIMD-0134) to reduce vote transaction overhead. The aggregation property dramatically reduces bandwidth and storage costs for consensus.
Aliases: Boneh-Lynn-Shacham
Related: Consensus Mechanism, Validator, SIMD (Solana Improvement Document)
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Branch

Consensus Mechanism

The protocol by which nodes in a distributed network agree on the current state of the ledger. Common mechanisms include Proof of Work (Bitcoin), Proof of Stake (Ethereum, Solana), and BFT variants. Consensus ensures all honest nodes converge on the same transaction history despite potential network delays or malicious actors.

Proof of Stake (PoS)Proof of Work (PoW)
Open term
Branch

Validator

A node that participates in the Solana network by validating transactions, voting on blocks, and (when selected as leader) producing new blocks. Validators run the Agave, Firedancer, or Jito client software, require significant hardware (128+ GB RAM, high-core CPU, NVMe SSD), and earn rewards from inflation and transaction fees.

Vote AccountStake
Open term
Branch

SIMD (Solana Improvement Document)

A formal specification document describing proposed and accepted changes to the Solana protocol, analogous to Ethereum's EIPs. SIMDs are categorized as Standard (Core, Networking, Interface) or Meta, and require supermajority validator stake-weighted voting (66.67%) to pass. Notable SIMDs include SIMD-33 (Timely Vote Credits), SIMD-123 (Block Revenue Sharing), SIMD-228 (Market-Based Emissions), and SIMD-326 (Alpenglow).

Epoch
Open term
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Blockchain General

Consensus Mechanism

The protocol by which nodes in a distributed network agree on the current state of the ledger. Common mechanisms include Proof of Work (Bitcoin), Proof of Stake (Ethereum, Solana), and BFT variants. Consensus ensures all honest nodes converge on the same transaction history despite potential network delays or malicious actors.

Open term
Core Protocol

Validator

A node that participates in the Solana network by validating transactions, voting on blocks, and (when selected as leader) producing new blocks. Validators run the Agave, Firedancer, or Jito client software, require significant hardware (128+ GB RAM, high-core CPU, NVMe SSD), and earn rewards from inflation and transaction fees.

Open term
Core Protocol

SIMD (Solana Improvement Document)

A formal specification document describing proposed and accepted changes to the Solana protocol, analogous to Ethereum's EIPs. SIMDs are categorized as Standard (Core, Networking, Interface) or Meta, and require supermajority validator stake-weighted voting (66.67%) to pass. Notable SIMDs include SIMD-33 (Timely Vote Credits), SIMD-123 (Block Revenue Sharing), SIMD-228 (Market-Based Emissions), and SIMD-326 (Alpenglow).

Open term
Blockchain General

BRC-20

An experimental fungible token standard on Bitcoin using Ordinals inscriptions in JSON format to deploy, mint, and transfer tokens. BRC-20 tokens store state in inscription data and require off-chain indexers to track balances, as Bitcoin has no native token state concept. The standard gained significant adoption in 2023-2024 but creates excessive junk UTXOs, leading to the development of the UTXO-native Runes protocol as an alternative.

Open term
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Blockchain Generalbitcoin-script

Bitcoin Script

Bitcoin's stack-based, intentionally non-Turing-complete scripting language used to define spending conditions for transaction outputs. Scripts are composed of opcodes that manipulate a stack to evaluate whether a transaction is authorized, supporting operations like signature verification (OP_CHECKSIG), multisig (OP_CHECKMULTISIG), timelocks (OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY), and hash preimage checks. Its deliberate limitations (no loops, bounded execution) minimize attack surface.

AliasScript
Open term
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Blockchain Generalconsensus

Consensus Mechanism

The protocol by which nodes in a distributed network agree on the current state of the ledger. Common mechanisms include Proof of Work (Bitcoin), Proof of Stake (Ethereum, Solana), and BFT variants. Consensus ensures all honest nodes converge on the same transaction history despite potential network delays or malicious actors.

Open term
Core Protocolvalidator

Validator

A node that participates in the Solana network by validating transactions, voting on blocks, and (when selected as leader) producing new blocks. Validators run the Agave, Firedancer, or Jito client software, require significant hardware (128+ GB RAM, high-core CPU, NVMe SSD), and earn rewards from inflation and transaction fees.

Open term
Core Protocolsimd

SIMD (Solana Improvement Document)

A formal specification document describing proposed and accepted changes to the Solana protocol, analogous to Ethereum's EIPs. SIMDs are categorized as Standard (Core, Networking, Interface) or Meta, and require supermajority validator stake-weighted voting (66.67%) to pass. Notable SIMDs include SIMD-33 (Timely Vote Credits), SIMD-123 (Block Revenue Sharing), SIMD-228 (Market-Based Emissions), and SIMD-326 (Alpenglow).

Open term
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Blockchain General

Blockchain

A distributed, append-only ledger that records transactions in cryptographically linked blocks. Each block contains a hash of the previous block, forming an immutable chain. Nodes in the network maintain copies of the ledger and reach agreement through consensus mechanisms. Blockchains enable trustless, decentralized record-keeping without a central authority.

Open term
Blockchain General

Consensus Mechanism

The protocol by which nodes in a distributed network agree on the current state of the ledger. Common mechanisms include Proof of Work (Bitcoin), Proof of Stake (Ethereum, Solana), and BFT variants. Consensus ensures all honest nodes converge on the same transaction history despite potential network delays or malicious actors.

Open term
Blockchain General

Proof of Stake (PoS)

A consensus mechanism where validators are selected to produce blocks based on the amount of cryptocurrency they have staked (locked) as collateral. PoS is energy-efficient compared to Proof of Work. Misbehaving validators risk losing their stake (slashing). Solana, Ethereum (post-Merge), Cosmos, and Cardano use PoS variants.

Open term
Blockchain General

Proof of Work (PoW)

A consensus mechanism where miners compete to solve computationally expensive puzzles to produce blocks and earn rewards. PoW provides strong security (51% attack resistance) but is energy-intensive. Bitcoin and pre-Merge Ethereum use PoW. The difficulty adjusts to maintain target block times regardless of total network hash power.

Open term