#Glossary
This page collects every protocol term used across the learn section into one place. Each definition is a brief summary, and the "Explained in" column links to the page where the concept is covered in depth.
#Core Entities
| Term | Definition | Explained in |
|---|---|---|
| Network Estate | Your place on the network, built through years of hosting labor. It holds your level, boost badges, eternal floor, and Estate Key. | Avatar + Mind = You |
| Avatar | Your cryptographic identity on the network, consisting of a quantum-resistant keypair (the Identity Key) and a .avtr domain name. | Avatar + Mind = You |
| Artificial Mind / Mind | Everything you write about yourself: stories, journal entries, lessons, memories, opinions. Your Avatar contains it, and it is what future generations read and converse with. | Avatar + Mind = You |
| Engram | An atomic unit of content, up to 8,192 characters. Each engram is content-addressed by its SHA-512 hash and signed by the author's Identity Key. | Data Hierarchy |
| Experience | A major topic area in your Mind, like a book on a shelf. Contains memories and engrams beneath it. | Data Hierarchy |
| Memory | A grouping that organizes engrams, like a chapter in a book. Memories can nest up to three levels deep. | Data Hierarchy |
| Node | A physical machine on the network, the building on network land. A node can run one or more roles such as beacon, mirror, or relay. | Peer-to-Peer |
#Node Roles
| Term | Definition | Explained in |
|---|---|---|
| Beacon | The primary node hosting an avatar's data. It holds the authoritative, latest copy. There is one beacon per avatar. | Peer-to-Peer |
| Mirror | A node that stores and serves copies of an avatar. Any node can mirror any public avatar. | Peer-to-Peer |
| Relay | A node that routes encrypted traffic between other nodes without being able to read it. | Peer-to-Peer |
| Satellite | A lightweight browser node that offloads heavy tasks like AI inference to a remote beacon. | Peer-to-Peer |
| Receiver | A visitor browsing an avatar. It reads content but does not store or serve it. | Peer-to-Peer |
#Level System
| Term | Definition | Explained in |
|---|---|---|
| Level (L1 through L7) | Your Network Estate's rank on the network, determined by cumulative hosting time following the 3^n pattern. L7 is the absolute cap, the seventh and highest tier. Higher levels grant more copies and require a higher Surplus ratio. | Protocol Economics |
| Seven Heavens | The seven-level system (L1 through L7), named after the Hindu Sapta Loka and the parallel seven-tier cosmologies in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. L7 is the topmost tier, reachable only when someone keeps hosting an estate after the original user is gone. | Protocol Economics |
| Temp / Limbo | The 90-day probationary period before your avatar becomes permanent, requiring three verifications from trusted members to pass. Failure means deletion. | Verification |
| Permanence gate | The requirement that every new avatar collect three trusted verifications within its 90-day TTL to become permanent. Failure deletes the avatar and all replicated copies. | Verification |
| Trusted verifier | A user whose level meets the network's current verifier-tier requirement: L2 (9 months) during the Genesis phase (network age 0 to 27 months) and L3 (27 months) once the network reaches Mature phase. L1 is explicitly excluded because the attack cost (~$100K) is too low. | Verification |
| Banked verification | A verification you have issued or received that exceeds your current level's 3^n cap. Banked verifications unlock automatically as you climb levels. A user who verifies 50 friends at L1 has 47 banked, and unlocks them progressively at L2, L3, L4. | Verification |
| 3^n pattern | The progression rule governing the entire protocol: level n requires 3^n months and grants up to 3^n copies. The same constant drives probation (3 months), verifications (3 required), and exercise windows (3 days). | Protocol Economics |
| 3^n Unification | The protocol's central pattern. Every dimension at level n equals 3^n: months hosted, verifications earned, maximum replication, and the verification cap. The number 3 also governs probation length, exercise window, base copies, base ratio, and the trusted-verifications threshold, so the entire economic model derives from a single constant. | Protocol Economics |
| Verifier status | Earned after hosting for at least nine months (L2), allowing you to vouch for new avatars during their 90-day probation. In the mature network, L3 (27 months) is required. The badge attaches to the Avatar (Identity Key), not to the Network Estate, so if you sell your estate your verifier track record moves with you and the buyer must earn their own. | Verification |
#Economics
| Term | Definition | Explained in |
|---|---|---|
| Bucket | Your personal storage allocation, which grows daily following the L+2 formula tied to your level (3 MB/day at L1, 4 MB/day at L2, up to 9 MB/day at L7), as long as you exercise the daily unlock and host proportionally. Permanent and never degrades, but capped per level (see Bucket cap). | Protocol Economics |
| Bucket cap | The maximum bucket size at each level, equal to the cumulative storage you would have unlocked by the end of that level's tenure phase. L1 = 270 MB, L7 = 557.73 GB. Reaching the cap stops daily unlocks until you climb to the next level (or stay capped permanently at L7, since there is no L8). | Protocol Economics |
| Replication factor | The slider value you pick within [3, 3^n] where 3^n is your level's ceiling. Equals your Guaranteed Backup: while you actively host, the network maintains exactly this many copies of your Mind on other machines. The default is 3 (the protocol minimum). Locked at 3 for Temp and L1; the slider opens up at L2. | Protocol Economics |
| Guaranteed Backup | The copies of your Mind guaranteed by your own hosting commitment. Numerically equal to your replication factor. While you actively host these copies are maintained; if you stop, they decay over the symmetric decay window toward the eternal floor. | Protocol Economics |
| Surplus ratio | The L+2 multiplier (1:3 at L1 rising to 1:9 at L7) that sets how much you host per guaranteed copy. Of its parts, 1 backs your Guaranteed Backup and ratio − 1 are the surplus you provide to the network. Replaces the older terms "redundancy ratio" and "contribution ratio". | Protocol Economics |
| Non-Guaranteed/Surplus | The copies of your Mind beyond the Guaranteed Backup, equal to (Surplus ratio − 1) × replication. Health-elastic: full at 100% network health, shrinking in proportion as health falls, gone at 0% (only the eternal floor remains). | Protocol Economics |
| Total Network Storage | The copies of your Mind at full network health, equal to replication × Surplus ratio (Guaranteed Backup + Non-Guaranteed/Surplus). It is also the disk you reserve to host others, which is why the exchange is reciprocal. An L5 user with replication 100 at 1:7 has 700 at 100% health, 400 at 50%, 100 at 0%. | Protocol Economics |
| Progressive contribution (L+2) | The principle that the Surplus ratio is always two steps above your level number, so higher levels host proportionally more. An L3 estate hosts 5x per guaranteed copy and uses 1x for itself, providing 4x surplus. | Protocol Economics |
| Surplus | The hosting capacity living participants provide beyond their own guaranteed copies. Elastic, not a fixed pool: it expands at high network health and contracts under load, which is how the network funds visitors, non-contributors, and the dead without ever going insolvent. | Protocol Economics |
| Boost badge | A permanent multiplier recorded on your Network Estate, earned by responding to a stress call and hosting continuously for 90 days. It increases your eternal floor and your priority in the recovery queue. | Protocol Economics |
| Stress call | A network broadcast issued when health drops below 80%, offering permanent boost badges to participants who contribute extra storage. Responding early earns a higher reward than waiting. | Protocol Economics |
| Eternal floor | The minimum number of copies of your Mind your estate keeps, preserved even at 0% network health and after you stop hosting. Computed as L+2 base × min(boost, 3). The base is L+2 (so 3 for L1, 7 for L5, 9 for L7), and a full boost badge triples it (so up to 9 for L1, 21 for L5, 27 for L7). Distinct from Guaranteed Backup, which depends on active hosting; the eternal floor survives even when active hosting stops. | Protocol Economics |
| Circuit breaker | An automatic safety mechanism that fires at 50%, 33%, and 0% health to progressively shed surplus, delete temps, or freeze the network. Guaranteed copies are never touched regardless of which breaker fires. | Protocol Economics |
| Network health | A single percentage tracking how much surplus capacity remains after covering all guaranteed commitments. Displayed as a filling bar with zone labels from Excellent (90%+) to Failing (below 50%). | Protocol Economics |
| Grace period | A buffer of L+2 weeks after you stop hosting before any degradation begins (3 weeks at L1, 4 at L2, up to 9 at L7). During the grace period your level, replication, and bucket stay fully preserved. Designed to absorb travel, short outages, and hardware swaps without penalty. | Digital Permanence |
| Degradation | The process that begins after the grace period expires: copies above the eternal floor are shed, and levels decay symmetrically (each taking the same 3^n months to lose as it took to earn). An L5 estate takes over 30 years of continuous absence to fully degrade. | Digital Permanence |
| Universal access ancestors | Previous generations whose avatars are preserved by the network's surplus pool. The progressive contribution formula ensures the living produce enough surplus to carry the dead. | Digital Permanence |
| Genesis | The moment the first DHT record is entered on the network. Marks the start of the Generational Multiplier clock and anchors every later 25-year generation boundary. | Digital Permanence |
| Generational Multiplier | A network-wide factor that multiplies every active host's commitment, computed as 1.05^(years_since_Genesis / 25). Grows by 5% per 25-year generation, monotonically, forever. Multiplies the hosting obligation only; copies of your Mind and your eternal floor are not affected. The third long-term sustainability layer alongside the elastic surplus and storage cost decline. | Digital Permanence |
| Backupism | The economic model that borrows the mechanics of capitalism and redirects them toward preservation. More backups means a higher chance of survival in eternity, the same way more capital means a higher chance of survival in the economy. | Backupism |
| Artificial Eternity | The state where your avatar persists indefinitely on the network, sustained by the surplus of future generations. Only one copy needs to survive for the network to restore the rest. | Backupism |
| Digital immortality | The ability of your 0s and 1s to live forever: your words, your writings, and your signed cryptographic identity preserved on a decentralized network. Not consciousness upload, but data preservation. | Backupism |
#Cryptography
| Term | Definition | Explained in |
|---|---|---|
| Estate Key | The SLH-DSA keypair that controls your Network Estate (level, boost badges, hosting position). Separate from the Identity Key so compromising one does not compromise the other. | Avatar + Mind = You |
| Identity Key | The SLH-DSA keypair that proves your authorship by signing every engram you write. The public half travels with your .avtr domain so anyone can verify your signatures. | Avatar + Mind = You |
| Node Key | The SLH-DSA keypair that identifies a machine on the network, separate from both the Identity Key and the Estate Key. It answers "which machine am I talking to?" Every machine generates one automatically. | Peer-to-Peer |
| Provider Key | The SLH-DSA keypair that signs the DHT record mapping a .host brand to the fleet of machines underneath it. Optional, generated only when a hosting provider registers a .host domain. | Peer-to-Peer |
| SLH-DSA | Stateless Hash-Based Digital Signature Algorithm (FIPS 205), the post-quantum signature algorithm used for all signing on Avatarnet. Built entirely from hash functions, so its security does not depend on any problem a quantum computer could solve. | Post-Quantum Cryptography |
| SHA-512 | Secure Hash Algorithm producing a 64-byte fingerprint of any input (FIPS 180-4). It powers content addressing on the network: every engram's hash becomes its permanent address. | Signing and Encryption |
| AES-256-GCM | Advanced Encryption Standard with 256-bit keys in Galois/Counter Mode (FIPS 197). The symmetric encryption algorithm that encrypts private and personal engrams so only the intended recipient can read them. | Signing and Encryption |
| ML-KEM | Module-Lattice-Based Key Encapsulation Mechanism (FIPS 203). The post-quantum algorithm that lets two avatars agree on a shared encryption key across an untrusted network, replacing classical approaches like X25519. | Signing and Encryption |
| Content hash | The SHA-512 fingerprint of a piece of content. It serves as the content's permanent address on the network: changing even one character produces an entirely different hash. | Content Addressing |
| Signature | Proof of authorship: a piece of data produced by combining a message with a private key. Anyone with the corresponding public key can verify the signature without needing any secret. | Key and Hash Sizes |
| CID | Content Identifier. A self-describing address that wraps a SHA-512 hash with a short header specifying which algorithm produced it and how long the digest is. | Content Addressing |
| Multihash | A 66-byte self-describing wrapper around a hash: two header bytes (algorithm code and length) followed by the 64-byte SHA-512 digest. It lets the network support multiple hash algorithms without ambiguity. | Content Addressing |
| Merkle DAG | A Directed Acyclic Graph where every node is identified by the hash of its contents, and every parent includes the hashes of its children. Changing one leaf changes every hash up to the root. | Data Hierarchy |
| Peer ID | A compact identifier for a machine on the network. It is derived from the SHA-256 hash of the machine's protobuf-wrapped SLH-DSA public key, encoded in Base58. | Key and Hash Sizes |
#Naming
| Term | Definition | Explained in |
|---|---|---|
| .avtr domain | A human-readable name for a person's avatar on the network, like einstein.avtr. Resolved through the Avatar Name System without relying on DNS or any central authority. | Avatar + Mind = You |
| .host domain | A human-readable name for a hosting provider's brand on the network, like oxfordarchive.host. Optional, used by institutions and family fleets that want public visibility. Registered through the same DHT that resolves .avtr names, and signed by a Provider Key. | Peer-to-Peer |
| .temp.avtr domain | The temporary domain assigned during the 90-day probation period. It becomes a permanent .avtr domain after three verifications. | Protocol Economics |
| Avatar Name System (ANS) | The decentralized name resolution system that maps .avtr names to public keys in the DHT, replacing DNS entirely. Once a name is certified, the mapping is permanent. | Peer-to-Peer |
| DHT (Distributed Hash Table) | A decentralized phone book where each participating machine holds a piece of the lookup table. Uses the Kademlia algorithm to find any record in three to five hops, even in a network of millions of nodes. | Peer-to-Peer |
#Infrastructure
| Term | Definition | Explained in |
|---|---|---|
| Avataroam | The browser for Avatarnet, the same way Chrome is the browser for the traditional internet. You type a .avtr address and it loads the avatar's mind from the network. | Introduction |
| Avatarfind | The search engine for avatars, the same way Google is the search engine for websites. It indexes avatars across the network so you can discover people, ideas, and knowledge. | Introduction |
| libp2p | A modular networking library that handles peer identity, connection encryption, protocol negotiation, and the DHT. It is the same library that powers IPFS and other decentralized networks. | Peer-to-Peer |
| Kademlia | The DHT algorithm that defines mathematical "closeness" between nodes so that any lookup converges quickly, even across millions of participants. It is the routing engine behind the Avatar Name System. | Peer-to-Peer |
#Pillars and Privacy
| Term | Definition | Explained in |
|---|---|---|
| Five Pillars | The five cryptographic promises Avatarnet makes: Estate Ownership (your estate is yours), Avatar Identity (your avatar is you), Mind Authorship (you wrote this), Mind Integrity (your words are unchanged), and Mind Privacy (only who you decide can read it). | Avatar + Mind = You |
| Privacy Spheres | Three zones controlling who can read your content. Public engrams are visible to everyone, Private engrams are encrypted and shared with specific recipients, and Personal engrams are encrypted with a key only you hold. | Privacy Spheres |