Terminology
General Terminology
Consensus
Output (UTXO)
Single-use batch of Bitcoin that must meet a specific set of conditions in order to be spent.
Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) Wallets
Cryptographic wallets that generate an infinite number of keys arranged in a tree structure from a single master seed - typically represented as a mnemonic word sequence - where parent keys can derive child keys, which can derive their own child keys, and so on.
Invoice Address
Partially Signed Bitcoin Transaction (PBST)
Pre-Signed Transaction Hash (Payment Preimage)
A cryptographic mechanism using hash preimage revelation to prove payment authorization, originally from Lightning Network and adapted for Bitcoin with Taproot signatures to enable secure conditional rollback transactions.
Delegated Proof of Stake (dPoS)
Incentivize users to confirm network data and ensure security through a process of collateral staking with an additional use of witnesses (formally called delegates).
Delegate Stakes
A transaction with specific lock script used in Kaon's dPoS to give a user an ability to participate in the chain's management, can be combined or delegated.
Masternode
Node connected to a wallet of Stakeholder
Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) Consensus
Non-optimistic provably safe proof-of-stake binary consensus augmented to offer a proof of settlement and distributed key generation (DKG) through deterministic process where its participants take turns round-robin fashion, its consistency and liveness assuming a number of Byzantine corruptions did not exceeded 1/2, and it has the ability to converge back to safety once synchrony is restored.
Treshold Signature Scheme (TSS)
A method to collectively produce signature where every participant holds only a fragment of a private key, in Kaon's case utilizing Schnorr signature, Shamir Secret Sharing, Simple Coins as a source of deterministic random and Lagrange interpolation.
Safe Multiparty Computation (sMPC)
Secure multiparty computation (MPC / SMPC) is a cryptographic protocol that distributes a computation across multiple parties (in Kaon’s case secret message sequences or SMSs) where no individual party can see the other parties’ data.
Epoch
Iteration of 80 blocks 13.(3) minutes long with a strict lifecircle, where election of validators for the next iteration is happened, allowing the BFT consensus to have non-fixed pool of participants in a determenistic manner.
sMPC Group
A set of participants determined by the BFT consensus for the current epoch from the approved set of validators of the current epoch as determined by dPoS consensus.
Witness Group
sMPC Group with a specific role to approve locked BTCs to be sent or to mark it as corrupt.
Validator Group
sMPC Group with a specific role to maintain lock over received BTCs and to send it, which could be executed only after the related Witness Group approval.
Peg In
Process of locking BTC in Bitcoin Network to get mirrorBTCs or to perform extended logic.
Peg Out
Process of sending BTC out of Kaon Network's locking mechanic to a user within the Bitcoin Network.
Sweeping
Process of delegating BTC locks maintained by Validator and Witness Groups of the previous Epoch to sMPC Groups of the current Epoch.
Slashing
Execution of validator or group of validators with confiscation of their stakes in case of detected and proven malicious activities, maintained by Kaon's Consensus Layer.
Mirrored Transaction
Transactions that move in either direction - from Bitcoin to Kaon's Consensus Layer or vice versa - when specific instructions are included in the transaction outputs.
mirrorBTC
Bitcoin representation in Kaon's Consensus Layer produced by Mirrored Transaction through the Peg In process.
Global Components
Consensus Layer
L1 system that provides BFT by randomly selecting and rotating participants (validators) that help reach consensus and solve incidents.
Node Augmentation
Wraps original node to trigger logic when receiving transactions and helps compose transactions for signing.
Cross Chain Mempool
Ensures deterministic transaction relaying, by using UTXO features (outputs).
BFT Consensus Layer
Orchestrates data flows between all connected chains by setting up a framework of possible interactions and roles or all participants.
BFT Internal Components
Epoch
Determines validator selection for the next iteration, allowing BFT consensus to maintain a deterministic yet dynamic participant pool.
sMPC Group
A coordinated set of nodes that collectively produce threshold signatures and manage cross-chain operations while operating as either Validators (maintaining locks) or Witnesses (approving operations).
sMPC Paritipant
An individual node that holds key shares and participates in collective signing processes while monitoring network transactions for its assigned group.
Internal Interactions
sMPC Participant <-> Node Augmentation
Broadcasts Mirrored Transactions
Node Augmentation <-> sMPC Group
Receives transactions and composes Mirrored Transactions
Node Augmentation <-> Cross Chain Mempool
Detects new transactions to be mirrored and ensures correctness of the process state
sMPC Group <-> Cross Chain Mempool
Pushes prepared and signed Mirrored Transactions to be broadcasted to Bitcoin or Kaon's Consensus Layer.
sMPC Participant <-> Cross Chain Mempool
Broadcasts prepared Mirrored Transaction to Bitcoin or Kaon's Consensus Layer.
External Interactions
Node Augmentation <-> Bitcoin Node
Receives newly confirmed transactions from Bitcoin Network and provides ability to broadcast transactions into Bitcoin Network.
Node Augmentation <-> Consensus Layer
Receives newly confirmed transactions from Consensus Layer and provides ability to broadcast transactions into Consensus Layer.
sMPC Group <-> sMPC Participant
Produces an invoice addresses for peg-in transactions and sign Mirrored Transactions
Consensus Layer <-> BFT Consensus
Switches epochs and forms a list of participants for the next epoch, also resolves incidents and applies judgement via slashing.
Component Roles
State
Cross Chain Mempool
Observer
Every sMPC Participant and any other Consensus Layer's node via Node Augmentation
Signer
Validators Group, sMPC Participant, Consensus Layer's validators for emergency preimage
Validator
Witness Group
Dispute Resolver
Consensus Layer
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