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Cryptography
Cryptography is the science of securing information by transforming it into a format that only authorized parties can understand and access. It involves using mathematical techniques to encode and protect data from unauthorized access, ensuring privacy, integrity, and authenticity of communications or data storage. Cryptography is essential for many modern technologies, including internet communications, online…
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Hash Function
A hash function is a mathematical algorithm that takes an input (or “message”) and returns a fixed-size string of characters, which is typically a hash value or digest (output). The output is a unique representation of the input data. You can think of a hash digest like a fingerprint. Just as every person’s fingerprint is…
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Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is an organization that operates based on rules encoded as smart contracts on a blockchain, without centralized control. A DAO is typically governed by its members, who hold tokens that give them voting power on proposals. The main idea behind a DAO is to create an entity that runs autonomously,…
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Sharding
Sharding is a concept in blockchain technology designed to improve scalability by breaking the network into smaller, more manageable parts (shards) that can process transactions in parallel, thus reducing the load on any single node and increasing the network’s overall throughput. However, Cardano does not currently implement sharding in the traditional sense that some other…
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Genesis Coins
In the Cardano ecosystem, Genesis Coins refer to the original coins that were minted at the inception of the network. These coins were created during the network’s “genesis block,” which is the very first block of transactions in the Cardano blockchain. At the launch of Cardano, the genesis block contained a pre-determined number of ADA…
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Optimistic Rollups
Optimistic Rollups on Cardano are a Layer-2 scaling solution designed to improve the network’s scalability by enabling off-chain transaction execution while maintaining the security guarantees of the Layer-1 (Cardano’s main blockchain). This technology allows for more efficient transaction processing, particularly for smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps), by shifting most of the computational work off-chain.…
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Input Endorsers
Input Endorsers on Cardano are part of a planned optimization to improve the blockchain’s scalability and transaction throughput. This concept aims to separate the process of transaction validation from block production, allowing for greater parallelism and efficiency in how transactions are handled. Here’s how Input Endorsers work and their significance: In summary, Input Endorsers are…
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Pipelining (Cardano)
Pipelining on Cardano is a technique aimed at improving the throughput and scalability of the network by optimizing the block validation process. Specifically, it allows for parts of the validation process to overlap, enabling the network to process more transactions within a given time frame, thereby increasing its throughput. This approach is critical for Cardano’s…
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Delegate Representatives (DReps)
Delegate Representatives (DReps) on Cardano are participants in the network’s on-chain governance system, particularly under the Voltaire era, which introduces governance and treasury features. DReps play a key role by representing ADA holders in governance decisions. Here’s a breakdown of their function: By introducing DReps, Cardano enhances decentralized governance by ensuring that even if individual…
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State Channels
State channels are a type of Layer-2 scaling solution that allow participants to conduct multiple off-chain transactions, only recording the final result of those transactions on the main blockchain. This helps improve scalability and efficiency by reducing the load on the main blockchain, while still maintaining the security and decentralization provided by the underlying blockchain.…
