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Glossary

Terms specific to WaveLedger, the Fourier language, and the entropy attestation protocol. EVM-flavored terms with EVM-identical meaning (stack, memory, calldata) are omitted.

Address (chain)
A 16-byte (32-hex-char) hash derived from a wallet's ML-KEM-1024 public key via SHA3-512(pub_key)[:32]. Used in transactions, balances, and the mempool. See Address format.
Address (VM)
A 20-byte (40-hex-char) identifier used inside contract execution. Derived from a chain address via the bridge function SHA3-256(chain_addr_utf8)[:20] at the moment a contract is called. Contract addresses live in this space too. See Address format.
Application-Specific Mining (ASM)
The design property of WaveLedger that every block must contain a verifiable entropy attestation, not just a PoW solution. The attestation source (currently drand, eventually QRNG hardware) is advertised on every block and validated by every full node.
Attestation
The quantum_signature envelope on a block. Contains the entropy seed, a SHA3-512 commitment, the source identifier, and a signature proving the source generated this entropy. See Block format.
Bohm
The smallest unit of WAVE; 1 WAVE = 10^18 bohms. Smart contract gas is denominated in bohms. Named after the physicist David Bohm, in keeping with the Fermi-themed naming.
Coinbase
The first transaction in every non-genesis block. Sender is the sentinel string "mining_reward". Recipient is the miner's wallet address. Amount is subsidy(height) + sum(fees).
Commitment
In the QRNG attestation: SHA3-512(entropy_seed || canonical(health)). The block-level entropy commitment that the attestation source signs. Lets validators check the seed matches the signed commitment without needing the full pre-hash payload.
Contract address
A VM-layer address derived deterministically at deploy time from SHA3-256(deployer_20b || nonce.be_32)[:20]. Two nodes processing the same deploy tx land on the same address. See Receipt format.
Difficulty
The number of leading hex zeros required on the SHA3-512 block hash to satisfy PoW. Adjusts every 10 blocks within [MIN_DIFFICULTY, MAX_DIFFICULTY] based on observed block times.
drand
The federated randomness beacon used by the testnet as the attestation source. Wraps a threshold BLS signature scheme run by several independent operators. Out of scope for the mainnet design; used today because it is publicly verifiable without QRNG hardware.
Entropy aggregator
qrng_aggregator_service.py. An optional in-tree service that XOR-combines entropy from N upstream providers and exposes the result as a REST endpoint on port 8420. Lets a node treat several independent sources as one logical entropy source.
Fano factor
variance / mean of a count process. For shot noise from a photodiode the expected value is ~1.0 (Poisson). One of three statistical checks applied to attestation entropy.
Fourier
WaveLedger's smart-contract language. Rust-flavored syntax, compiles directly to VM bytecode. Documented separately at fourier.fermi.world.
Genesis foundation address
34378b1ba5be9d0999acd60be3a8a1f1. Receives the 1M WAVE genesis distribution. Real ML-DSA-87-derived address; private key held offline by the BDFL. Predates any sentinel string.
Headers-first IBD
Initial Block Download strategy. Nodes pull block headers in batches of 2,000 to validate chain shape before fetching full bodies in batches of 500. Cheaper than naive download for catching up over long ranges.
Mainnet
The intended production network. Block time 60s, difficulty [2, 8], network magic b"WAVE". Not yet running.
Merkle root
SHA3-512 Merkle root over the block's transaction list, with odd-leaf doubling (Bitcoin convention). Coinbase is always leaf 0.
ML-DSA-87
NIST FIPS 204 signature scheme used for every transaction signature and every P2P message. NIST security level 5.
ML-KEM-1024
NIST FIPS 203 key encapsulation mechanism. Public-key half is what wallet addresses are derived from. Reserved for future P2P channel encryption.
Monobit ratio
Proportion of 1-bits in a binary sequence. For a true random source the expectation is 0.5. Attestation acceptance window: [0.40, 0.60].
Nonce (PoW)
The 64-bit integer the miner increments in the block header search. The final value satisfies the difficulty target.
Nonce (account)
Per-(sender, account) monotonically increasing integer. Used both for replay protection on chain-layer txs and for deriving contract deploy addresses on the VM layer.
Precompile
A native VM operation dispatched by address. SHA3-512, ML-DSA verify, and SLH-DSA verify are precompiles in the low end of the 20-byte address space. See Crypto primitives.
Proof type / source
Versioned fields on the attestation envelope identifying which entropy source produced this block's entropy and which validation rules apply. Lets the chain swap sources (drand → QRNG → multi-source) without forking.
Quantum verified
Boolean flag on a block or tx, set to true only after the relevant cryptographic check has passed. On a tx it means the ML-DSA-87 signature was verified. On a block it means the QRNG attestation was validated.
RBF (Replace-by-Fee)
A mempool entry can be replaced by a tx with the same (sender, nonce) and at least 1.1× the original fee. The original is evicted.
Receipt
Structured result of a contract transaction (deploy or call). Includes success flag, gas used, return data, logs, optional error. See Receipt format.
Relay-only node
A node that validates and forwards blocks and transactions but does not mine. Does not need a QRNG attestation source. Run on VPSes as public bootstrap peers.
Sentinel
A reserved string used in an address slot where a real address would be expected. The four sentinels are "mining_reward", "genesis", "contract", and "0" * 32. See Address format.
SLH-DSA-SHA2-128s
NIST FIPS 205 stateless hash-based signature. Optional VM precompile. Falls back to "always reject" if the pqcrypto package is not installed.
Testnet
The currently-running network. Block time 5s, difficulty capped at 4, network magic b"TWAV". Uses drand as the attestation source.
WAVE
The native token. 21M maximum supply, 18-decimal subdivision into bohms.