Reference
Glossary
Plain-English definitions for every term
Updated 2026-09-18: faucet entry reflects the airdrop dashboard and automatic validator funding.
ASE
The native token of Asentum. 1 ASE = 10¹⁸ wei. Used for gas, staking, and governance.
Amendment
A signalling side-vote attached to a governance proposal. Anyone can post one, up to 16 per proposal, no bond. It has its own lock-to-vote ballot and does not change the proposal text or reset its window. Learn more →
Approved library
A JavaScript module that governance v1 could approve for injection into every contract. Disabled from block 330,000: the list is empty and the node no longer injects libraries. 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. 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
A planned mechanism (coming in a future update, not live on testnet) by which ASE holders will assign their stake to a validator, sharing its rewards and risk. Today validators self-bond only. 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. 300 blocks on the testnet. Learn more →
Faucet
The testnet service that drips free test ASE. Available on the airdrop dashboard to signed-in users with a linked wallet (5 ASE per drip), and used automatically during validator onboarding. 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 enforced by the node rather than by governance: max supply, post-quantum signatures, JavaScript contract model. Changing one takes a new node release, not a vote. 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 →
Lock-to-vote
The governance voting model. Your vote weight is the ASE you send with the vote, and you withdraw it once voting on that proposal ends. 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 signal on the testnet. Anyone can create one with a 100 ASE bond. Votes are lock-to-vote (weight = ASE sent, not stake-weighted). The result is recorded on chain; nothing executes automatically. 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
The penalty for protocol-breaking behaviour. On the testnet today a proven equivocation tombstones the validator (removes it from the active set); no stake is burned. Burning a fraction of the stake is planned. Evidence-based, automatic. Learn more →
SMT
Sparse Merkle Tree. The data structure holding Asentum's state.
SSZ
Simple Serialize. The serialization format Asentum uses. Inherited from Ethereum beacon-chain research.
Staking
Bonding ASE as a validator to earn rewards. Today this means self-bond only (500 ASE minimum); delegation is coming in a future update. Learn more →
Tombstone
The permanent marker on a slashed validator. Irreversible - the pubkey is banned forever. Learn more →
Unbonding
The wait between unbonding self-bonded ASE and receiving it back as spendable ASE: 1,296,000 blocks (about 30 days at 2-second blocks; longer when blocks are slower). Learn more →
Validator
A node that has bonded at least 500 ASE, which makes it a candidate for the 100-seat signing committee. Seats are filled by stake each epoch; candidates below the cutoff wait without signing. Learn more →
View call
A read-only contract call. No gas, no transaction, no state change. Learn more →
VM library
Another name for an approved library. Library approval is disabled. See Approved Libraries. Learn more →
wei
The smallest denomination of ASE. 1 ASE = 10¹⁸ wei. Learn more →
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