This is an overview of the common terms used in relation to blockchain technology, digital identity and KILT Protocol.
For more detailed answers to frequently asked questions, check out KILT Tech Support.
A:
Account Linking – a service to link your DID and your identity (web3name, credentials, service endpoints) to multiple addresses across the Polkadot and Ethereum ecosystems. (For linking to transfer funds via a web3name see w3ndi.)
Angel’s Share – the "gas", or transaction fee (in KILT Coins) used for paying transactions or writing the hash value of credentials on the blockchain.
AssetDID – a new type of identifier that can help reduce counterfeit of digital assets. Verifiable credentials related to the asset’s properties, ownership etc. can be attached to this unique decentralized identifier (DID), ensuring the asset’s authenticity. AssetDIDs can be used for assets on any blockchain network and can even be used with physical assets.
Attester – a trusted entity or organization that attests claims and issues credentials on the KILT Protocol. The Attester confirms the truth of the claim requested based on the information presented by the Claimer. Also known as the Issuer.
B:
Backup phrase – the twelve-word mnemonic code used to recover a crypto wallet.
C:
Claim – a request to have something true attested, eg, proving date of birth, a driving license, a qualification, a game score, etc.
Claimer – the end user, who wants something about themselves attested in the form of a digital verifiable credential on KILT. Claimers may be people or also machines, things, or anything an identity can be created for. Also known as the Subject.
Collators – KILT collators function as a node by collecting transactions, building blocks of data, and holding the data of the KILT blockchain.
Crowdloan – a voting mechanism on the Kusama or Polkadot network for deciding who gets the next available parachain slot. It allows people to vote for their favorite projects by locking up their own KSM or DOT in support of the project’s parachain lease bid. KILT conducted a crowdloan and secured a Kusama parachain slot in September 2021.
CType (claim type) – a standardized digital credential schema. In everyday language, a CType is a digital form that the claimer fills out, indicating the information that needs to be attested. Similar to the W3C verifiable credential JSON schema.
CType Hub – a Hub for existing and new CTypes.
D:
dapps (decentralized applications) – open source software programs that run on a blockchain or peer-to-peer network rather than on a single computer.
Decentralized Identity Provider (DIP) – a protocol that provides the building blocks to establish an open cross-chain identity ecosystem. Using DIP, any chain can become an identity provider, and parachains can choose the identity provider/s they want to cooperate with.
Delegators – KILT Coin holders who choose to back collators with their KILT. The delegator receives rewards every time their collator produces a block.
DID (Decentralized Identifier) – a digital identifier that uniquely identifies an identity (as a fingerprint does for a person) in a verifiable, decentralized way. It is represented as a string of numbers and letters. A DID can be used for people, machines, services and anything that identities can be built on.
DIDsign – a decentralized way to sign and verify any kind of digital file privately and securely.
Digital credential – a digitized proof of an authorized qualification, competence, clearance, or any other attribute of an individual, a company, object, or even AI. These could be things such as proving date of birth, a driving license, a qualification, a game score, etc. Digital credentials proving control of an email address, social media account, etc. can be obtained from SocialKYC.
E:
Existential deposit (ED) – the minimum amount of KILT (currently 0.01 KILT) that needs to be kept in a KILT account to prevent the account from being deactivated (“reaped”). This works as a security feature to prevent attacks on the blockchain.
H:
Hash – a unique string of letters and numbers, like a digital fingerprint, created by a cryptographic algorithm to represent a piece of data. This string can be created in one direction only – from information to hash – so there is no way to reverse it and read the data. In KILT, via the hash, only verifiers to whom credentials or selected data from credentials were disclosed can check the validity of that credential on the blockchain.
K:
KILT blockchain – the blockchain behind the KILT Protocol used for anchoring important properties of KILT credentials and for KILT Coins. Also known as Spiritnet. KILT is a parachain in the Polkadot network.
KILT Coin – the native cryptocurrency token of the KILT blockchain, used for making transactions, staking and voting within the KILT network.
KILT Protocol – KILT is a blockchain identity protocol for generating self-sovereign decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials. KILT provides secure, practical identity solutions for enterprise and consumers.
KILT Services – applications, services or functionalities built by third parties that use the KILT blockchain.
Kusama – the blockchain network for radical innovation and early-stage Polkadot deployment. KILT ran on Kusama as a parachain before moving to Polkadot in September 2022. Kusama is Polkadot’s canary network.
L:
Limited Delegated Proof of Stake (LDPoS) – a version of proof-of-stake consensus used by KILT, where delegators use their KILT Coins to back collators that they trust in the system.
O:
OpenDID – an off-the shelf open-source software component for websites that can be used to implement a login with a KILT credential.
P:
Parachains – sovereign blockchains running in parallel within the Kusama and Polkadot networks. KILT launched as a parachain on the Kusama network in September 2021 and moved to Polkadot in September 2022.
Parathread – a blockchain running on the Kusama and Polkadot networks like a parachain, but on a pay-as-you-go basis rather than a longer-term lease.
Parity Technologies – the company that developed Polkadot, Kusama, and the Substrate blockchain framework that KILT is built on.
Peregrine – KILT’s testnet, designed for developing the new cutting-edge features around decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs) before they are moved to Spiritnet.
Polkadot – a next-generation blockchain protocol that is designed to support multiple specialized layer-one blockchains with security and interoperability services.
Protocol – a set of rules and procedures for transmitting data between electronic devices like computers.
Public credential – a credential written on the (KILT) blockchain and linked to an NFT (on any blockchain or any smart contract) via the AssetDID of that NFT.
S:
Selective Disclosure – the ability of users to choose what and how much of their information they share. For example, in SocialKYC credentials, the owner of the credential can choose to share all or part of that credential.
Self-sovereign identity (SSI) – identity where the owner of that identity has control over their own data and how it is used.
SocialKYC – a decentralized identity verification service built on KILT Protocol for regaining control over your digital credentials and identity. SocialKYC allows users to manage, store and present their personal KILT credentials, giving them sovereignty over their data and enabling them to select which elements of their private information are accessed by online services.
Spiritnet – the blockchain mainnet of KILT Protocol that first ran as a parachain on the Kusama network and is now running as a parachain on the Polkadot network.
Sporran – a wallet browser extension that can be used to store KILT credentials and KILT Coins. Scottish Gaelic for "purse" that is worn in front of a man’s kilt.
Stakeboard – the staking platform of the KILT blockchain.
Substrate – a blockchain-building framework developed by Parity Technologies. Kusama, Polkadot and the KILT blockchain are built on Substrate.
V:
Verifiable credential (VC) – a cryptographically secured digital credential that can be digitally verified. This allows credentials to be revoked if they are no longer valid. A range of verifiable credentials can be obtained via SocialKYC.
Verifier – an entity that verifies the validity of a claimer’s credentials on the KILT Blockchain.
W:
Web3 – The next generation of the web. This aims to be a decentralized and fair internet where users control their own data and identity. (Also known as Web 3.0, or Web 3.)
web3name (w3n) – a custom name that can be created to represent the string of numbers and letters of an on-chain decentralized identifier (DID), which forms the core of a KILT digital identity.
w3ndi – a way to send and receive tokens via a web3name. This is currently available via Nova Wallet and supports addresses across Polkadot, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Polygon, and more. (See Account Linking for other linking type.)
KILT Tech Support provides more explanations of common terms and services.
