Reference
Glossary
Plain-English definitions for every term
Updated 2026-09-09: consensus terms describe Aura block production and GRANDPA finality; the validator set scales to hundreds.
ASE
The native token of Asentum. 1 ASE = 10¹⁸ wei. Used for gas, staking, and governance.
Amendment
A modification to a governance proposal during its voting window. Resets the window to full length. Learn more →
Approved library
A JavaScript module whose source is stored on-chain, approved via governance, and injected into every contract as a frozen endowment. Learn more →
Base fee
The per-gas fee every transaction pays in a block. 100% burned on the current testnet. Adjusts automatically under EIP-1559 dynamics. Learn more →
BFT
Byzantine Fault Tolerant. A consensus family that survives up to 1/3 malicious validators. Asentum reaches finality with GRANDPA, a BFT finality gadget, on top of Aura block production. Learn more →
BLAKE3
The hash function used throughout Asentum - block hashes, contract hashes, address derivation.
BIP-39
The wordlist standard used for recovery phrases. Asentum uses the English wordlist; key derivation from the phrase is Asentum-specific. Learn more →
Committee
The validator set that produces blocks each epoch, weighted by stake. Scales to hundreds of validators. Learn more →
Compartment
A SES evaluation scope with its own globals. Every contract runs in its own Compartment. Approved libraries live in sub-Compartments. Learn more →
Contract
A deployed JavaScript module with state, callable methods, and on-chain source. Learn more →
Cold-load surcharge
Per-byte gas cost applied the first time a contract is loaded in a block. Incentivises small modular contracts. Learn more →
Delegation
The mechanism by which ASE holders assign their stake to a validator, sharing rewards and slashing risk. Learn more →
Dilithium3
Colloquial name for ML-DSA-65, the NIST FIPS 204 post-quantum signature scheme Asentum uses for every signature. Learn more →
Double-sign
Signing two different blocks at the same height (the same Aura slot) - the worst slashable offense. Results in permanent tombstoning. Learn more →
EIP-1559
Ethereum's fee market design: a dynamic base fee (burned) plus an optional priority fee. Asentum uses the same model, full burn today. Learn more →
ase1 address
The native Asentum address format, bech32-encoded with an ase1 prefix and a built-in checksum. This is what wallets and the SDK show. Learn more →
EIP-55
The mixed-case hex checksum encoding used by Ethereum-style addresses. Asentum native addresses use ase1 bech32 instead; EIP-55 hex appears only on the EVM-compatible JSON-RPC surface. Learn more →
EOA
Externally-owned account. A regular address controlled by a Dilithium3 keypair (not a contract). Learn more →
Epoch
A fixed-length period during which the validator committee is constant. A new committee is selected at the start of each epoch. Learn more →
Faucet
The testnet service that drips free test ASE to any address. Learn more →
Finality
The guarantee that a block will never be reverted. GRANDPA finalizes a block once validators representing two-thirds of stake vote for it; finality trails the head by a few blocks. Learn more →
Gas
The abstract unit of work a transaction consumes. Gas is priced in wei; total fee = gas × (base_fee + priority_fee). Learn more →
Hard floor
A protocol invariant governance cannot change - max supply, post-quantum signatures, JavaScript contract model. Learn more →
Hard proposal
A governance proposal touching invariants, VM libraries, or other high-stakes changes. 3-week voting window, 2/3 supermajority. Learn more →
Hardened JavaScript
The SES-based contract sandbox. Frozen primordials, no ambient authority, deterministic execution. Learn more →
ANT
Asentum Native Transport. Persistent-TCP, length-prefixed, per-peer state machine for consensus traffic. Runs in a worker thread so consensus storms cannot starve the keep-alive loop. Replaced libp2p in 2026. Learn more →
HTTP fan-out
The block-sync and RPC transport. Replicas poll a peer's /block-raw/:n endpoint in batches. Consensus votes ride ANT instead of HTTP since 2026. Learn more →
Light client
A node that verifies block headers and committee signatures without storing full state. Learn more →
ML-DSA-65
NIST FIPS 204. The post-quantum signature standard Asentum uses. Formerly known as Dilithium3. Learn more →
Nonce
Per-account transaction counter. Prevents replay of signed transactions. Learn more →
Object-capability
The security model Asentum contracts use. No authority without a reference - contracts can only do what's been explicitly passed to them. Learn more →
Pre-commit
A GRANDPA finality vote to commit to a block. Once pre-commits representing two-thirds of stake accumulate, the block and its ancestors are finalized. Learn more →
Pre-vote
A GRANDPA vote for the highest block a validator considers valid. Pre-votes feed the pre-commit stage of a finality round. Learn more →
Priority fee
Optional tip included with a transaction, paid to the block proposer. Incentive for inclusion when the mempool is full. Learn more →
Proposal
A governance instrument. Soft or hard tier. Votes stake-weighted. Executes automatically after timelock. Learn more →
Recovery phrase
24 BIP-39 words that deterministically reproduce your wallet keypair. Back up on paper. Learn more →
Reentrancy
The class of attacks where a cross-contract call re-enters the caller mid-execution. Structurally impossible on Asentum because cross-contract calls are async. Learn more →
Restaking
Compounding pending rewards back into bonded stake without unbonding. Learn more →
SES
Secure ECMAScript. The TC39 proposal Asentum uses as its contract sandbox. A.k.a. Hardened JavaScript. Learn more →
Service node
A full node that publishes as a public RPC endpoint, earning micro-fees with no slashing risk. Learn more →
Slashing
Burning a fraction of a validator's stake for protocol-breaking behaviour. Evidence-based, automatic. Learn more →
SMT
Sparse Merkle Tree. The data structure holding Asentum's state.
Soft proposal
A governance proposal for low-stakes changes. 72-minute voting window, simple majority. Learn more →
SSZ
Simple Serialize. The serialization format Asentum uses. Inherited from Ethereum beacon-chain research.
Staking
Bonding ASE to a validator pool to earn rewards. See self-bond + delegation. Learn more →
Tombstone
The permanent marker on a slashed validator. Irreversible - the pubkey is banned forever. Learn more →
Unbonding
14-day window between withdrawing a delegation and receiving spendable ASE back. Still slashable during the window. Learn more →
Validator
A node that has bonded stake and is eligible for the consensus committee. Learn more →
View call
A read-only contract call. No gas, no transaction, no state change. Learn more →
VM library
An approved JavaScript module injected into every contract's Compartment as a frozen global. See Approved Libraries. Learn more →
wei
The smallest denomination of ASE. 1 ASE = 10¹⁸ wei. Learn more →
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