Glossary
The complete reference for zero-knowledge infrastructure, AI privacy, cryptography, and Web3 identity terminology. Every term defined with technical precision.
80 Terms Defined
A
AES-256
AES-256 is the 256-bit variant of the Advanced Encryption Standard, a …
API Gateway
An API gateway is a reverse proxy that serves as the single entry point for …
Attestation (Cryptographic)
Cryptographic attestation is a protocol by which a computing environment …
B
Blockchain
A blockchain is a distributed, append-only ledger that records transactions in …
Burn Timer
A burn timer is a countdown mechanism that automatically and irreversibly …
C
CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act)
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a state-level privacy law granting …
Certificate Transparency
Certificate Transparency (CT) is an open framework of append-only logs, …
Chaos Engineering
Chaos engineering is the discipline of proactively injecting controlled failures …
Ciphertext
Ciphertext is the scrambled, unreadable output produced by encrypting plaintext …
Cloudflare Workers
Cloudflare Workers is a serverless edge computing platform that executes …
Confidential Computing
Confidential computing protects data during processing by performing computation …
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A content delivery network (CDN) is a geographically distributed system of proxy …
Crypto Shredding
Crypto shredding is the practice of rendering encrypted data permanently …
Cryptographic Shredding
Cryptographic shredding (crypto-shredding) is the practice of destroying …
D
Data Breach
A data breach is an incident in which unauthorized parties gain access to …
Data Classification
Data classification is the process of categorizing data assets by sensitivity, …
Data Clean Rooms
A data clean room is a secure, controlled environment where multiple parties can …
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Data loss prevention (DLP) encompasses the policies, tools, and technologies …
Data Minimization
Data minimization is the principle that personal data collection and processing …
Data Processor vs Data Controller
Data processor and data controller are legal roles defined by GDPR and similar …
Data Residency
Data residency refers to the physical geographic location where an …
Data Sovereignty
Data sovereignty is the principle that digital data is subject to the laws and …
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is an entity governed by smart …
Decentralized Identifier (DID)
A Decentralized Identifier (DID) is a globally unique, self-sovereign identifier …
Differential Privacy
Differential privacy is a mathematical framework that provides provable …
Digital Signature
A digital signature is a cryptographic mechanism that provides authentication, …
DNS over HTTPS (DoH)
DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is a protocol that encrypts Domain Name System queries by …
DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment)
A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is a formal process mandated by GDPR …
Durable Objects
Durable Objects are a Cloudflare Workers primitive that provides strongly …
E
Edge Computing
Edge computing is an architecture that processes data at or near the point of …
Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)
Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is a public-key cryptographic system based on …
End-to-End Encryption (E2EE)
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a communication model in which only the …
Ephemeral Infrastructure
Ephemeral infrastructure refers to compute environments that exist only for the …
Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables smart …
F
FADP (Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection)
The Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP/nDSG) is Switzerland's …
Federated Learning
Federated learning is a machine learning paradigm in which a model is trained …
Forward Secrecy
Forward secrecy (also called perfect forward secrecy) is a property of key …
G
Gas Fee
A gas fee is the computational cost required to execute a transaction or smart …
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the European Union's …
H
Hardware Security Module (HSM)
A hardware security module (HSM) is a dedicated, tamper-resistant physical …
Hash Function
A cryptographic hash function is a deterministic algorithm that maps …
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
HIPAA is the United States federal law establishing national standards for the …
Homomorphic Encryption
Homomorphic encryption is a form of encryption that permits computation on …
I
Immutable Ledger
An immutable ledger is a record-keeping system in which entries, once written, …
J
JSON Web Token (JWT)
A JSON Web Token (JWT) is a compact, URL-safe token format defined by RFC 7519 …
K
Key Management
Key management encompasses the policies, procedures, and cryptographic …
Kubernetes
Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that automates the …
L
Layer 2 (L2)
Layer 2 (L2) refers to scaling solutions built on top of a base blockchain …
M
Merkle Tree
A Merkle tree is a cryptographic data structure in which every leaf node …
Metadata
Metadata is data about data---the structural, contextual, and transactional …
Model Memorization
Model memorization is the phenomenon in which machine learning models, …
N
Nonce
A nonce (number used once) is a unique, single-use value incorporated into …
O
Oblivious RAM (ORAM)
Oblivious RAM (ORAM) is a cryptographic technique that hides memory access …
Onion Routing
Onion routing is a technique for anonymous network communication in which …
P
PII (Personally Identifiable Information)
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is any data that can be used, alone or …
PII Stripping
PII stripping is the automated detection and removal or tokenization of …
Privacy by Design
Privacy by Design is a systems engineering framework that embeds data protection …
Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA)
A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is a systematic evaluation of how a proposed …
Prompt Injection
Prompt injection is an attack vector in which adversarial input is crafted to …
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
Public key infrastructure (PKI) is the framework of certificate authorities, …
R
Right to Erasure (Right to Be Forgotten)
The right to erasure, also known as the right to be forgotten, is a data subject …
S
Secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC)
Secure multi-party computation (MPC) is a cryptographic protocol that enables …
Shamir's Secret Sharing
Shamir's Secret Sharing is a cryptographic algorithm that divides a secret into …
Side-Channel Attack
A side-channel attack is a security exploit that extracts sensitive information …
Sign-In with Ethereum (SIWE)
Sign-In with Ethereum (SIWE) is an authentication standard (EIP-4361) that …
Smart Contract
A smart contract is a self-executing program deployed on a blockchain that …
Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP)
A Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP) is a security framework that creates an …
Soulbound Token (SBT)
A Soulbound Token (SBT) is a non-transferable, non-fungible digital token …
Stealth Cloud
Stealth Cloud is a zero-knowledge, zero-persistence cloud architecture where the …
T
Threat Model
A threat model is a structured analysis of potential adversaries, attack …
TLS (Transport Layer Security)
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the cryptographic protocol that encrypts data …
Tokenization (Privacy)
Tokenization is a data protection technique that replaces sensitive data …
Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)
A Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) is a hardware-isolated region within a …
V
V8 Isolate
A V8 Isolate is a lightweight, independent execution environment within Google's …
Verifiable Credentials
Verifiable Credentials are a W3C standard for cryptographically signed, …
W
Web Crypto API
The Web Crypto API is a W3C standard JavaScript interface that provides …
Z
Zero Trust Architecture
Zero Trust Architecture is a security framework that eliminates implicit trust …
Zero-Knowledge Proof
A zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) is a cryptographic protocol that allows one party …
Zero-Knowledge Rollup (ZK-Rollup)
A Zero-Knowledge Rollup (ZK-Rollup) is a Layer 2 scaling solution that executes …
Zero-Persistence Architecture
Zero-persistence architecture is a system design philosophy in which no user …