Skip to content

Glossary

  • Data request: a digital document declaring one or more data sources and how data coming from those sources can be normalized and combined together in order to present it as a single data point to be consumed by other programs.

  • Decentralized network: an overlay network in which multiple untrusted and independently operated computers have been set to communicate with each other as peers using a network protocol, with the purpose of fulfilling some common utility, without any of them having prominent or absolute control over the network and without chance for anyone to disrupt the functioning of the network.

  • Nanowit: also nWit, the billionth fraction of a wit token. That is, 1 x 10−9 wit in scientific notation or standard form. One nanowit is the minimum amount of value that can exist on its own in the Witnet protocol, i.e. you cannot divide wits any further, just like you cannot divide dollars or euros further than cents.

  • Oracle: an entity providing smart contracts with information from outside their containing network. Tamper resistance is the main point of smart contracts, so they should only employ decentralized oracles in which they do not need to trust the messenger. Otherwise, the oracle entity would become a single point of failure that would defeat the purpose of using smart contracts in the first place.

  • Smart contract: a deterministic computer program with a high degree of resistance to tampering and censorship due to its concurrent execution by a decentralized network of processors owned by independent, untrusted parties whose incentives deter them from colluding to alter the output of the program.