GlossaryA glossary of Plaid terminology
Other Self terminology
ACL - Access Control List
An access control list (ACL) is a list of permissions attached to an object. An ACL specifies which users or system processes are granted access to objects, as well as what operations are allowed on given objects. Each entry in a typical ACL specifies a subject and an operation.
AISP - Account Information Service Provider
Account Information Service Provider (AISP) lets you see all of your account information from different bank accounts in one place online or in a mobile app. AISPs can include budgeting apps and price comparison websites offering budgeting help and product recommendations. An AISP needs your explicit consent to provide you with these services.
AML - Anti Money Laundering
Refers to all policies and pieces of legislation that force financial institutions to proactively monitor their clients in order to prevent money laundering and corruption.
API - Application Programming Interface
API (application programming interface) is a set of subroutine definitions, communication protocols, and tools for building software. In general terms, it is a set of clearly defined methods of communication among various components.
Attestation
The act of an individual or organisational SelfID to attest / confirm / authenticate / validate / prove true another individual or organisational SelfIDs claim.
Aure
Self’s native token, used for paying for transactions on Self Blockchain A growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a merkle tree root hash). a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for inter-node communication and validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires consensus of the network majority.
Certificate Authority
A Certificate Authority (CA) is an entity that issues digital certificates. Claim A declaration by an individual or organisational SeflID of some information about itself, or an asset it owns, that is sent to one or more other individual or organisational SelfIDs to attest to.
CLI - Command Line Interface
A text-based interface that is used to operate software and operating systems while allowing the user to respond to visual prompts by typing single commands into the interface and receiving a reply in the same way.
Cold Storage
Cold storage is an offline wallet provided for storing cryptocurrencies. With cold storage, the digital wallet is stored on a platform that is not connected to the internet, thereby, protecting the wallet from unauthorised access, cyber hacks, and other vulnerabilities that a system connected to the internet is susceptible to.
DID - Decentralised Identifier
Decentralised Identifiers (DIDs) are a new type of identifier for verifiable, "self-sovereign" digital identity. DIDs are fully under the control of the DID subject, independent from any centralised registry, identity provider, or certificate authority. DIDs are URLs that relate a DID subject to means for trustable interactions with that subject. DIDs resolve to DID Documents — simple documents that describe how to use that specific DID. Each DID Document contains at least three things: cryptographic material, authentication suites, and service endpoints. Cryptographic material combined with authentication suites provide a set of mechanisms to authenticate as the DID subject (e.g., public keys, pseudonymous biometric protocols, etc.). Service endpoints enable trusted interactions with the DID subject.
Digital Certificate
The digital certificate also known as public key certificate, or identity certificate certifies the ownership of a public key by the named subject of the certificate. This allows others (relying parties) to rely upon signatures or assertions made by the private key that corresponds to the public key that is certified.
DLT - Distributed Ledger Technology
A distributed ledger is a database that is consensually shared and synchronised across network spread across multiple sites, institutions or geographies. It allows transactions to have public "witnesses," thereby making a cyberattack more difficult. The participant at each node of the network can access the recordings shared across that network and can own an identical copy of it. Further, any changes or additions made to the ledger are reflected and copied to all participants in a matter of seconds or minutes.
DRI - Directly Responsible Individual
Directly Responsible Individual relates to the person who is allocated as the owner of an Epic or a specific task.
DUNS Number
The DUNS number is a nine-digit number, issued and regulated by D&B (Dun & Bradstreet - a company that provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses). It is assigned to a single business entity, having a unique, separate, and distinct operation for the purpose of identifying them.
E2E - End-to-end
End to End encryptions allows only the users communicating can read the messages.
Epic
Epics represent the specific tasks or a body of work that can be broken down into use cases. Milestones consist of a number of Epics to be completed.
FCA - Financial Conduct Authority
The Financial Conduct Authority is a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government.
Hash
Encoding of data in to a small and generally fixed size
HLF - Hyperledger Fabric
A Fabric permissioned blockchain network is a technical infrastructure that provides ledger services to application consumers and administrators. In most cases, multiple organisations come together as a consortium to form the network and their permissions are determined by a set of policies that are agreed to by the consortium when the network is originally configured. Moreover, network policies
Horizon API Server
Horizon is an API server for the Stellar ecosystem. It acts as the interface between stellar-core and applications that want to access the Stellar network. It allows you to submit transactions to the network, check the status of accounts, subscribe to event streams, etc.
Hot Storage
Hot storage is online wallet provided for storing cryptocurrencies. With hot storage, the digital wallet is stored on a platform that is connected to the internet. Differently from a cold storage, a hot storage is subjected to unauthorised access, cyber hacks, and other vulnerabilities that a system connected to the internet is susceptible to.
Hyperledger
Hyperledger is a multi-project open source collaborative effort hosted by The Linux Foundation. We are using it to store the self ID into a public key mapping, and potentially to store the SelfID score too.
JWE - JSON Web Encryption
JSON Web Encryption is an IETF standard providing a standardised syntax for the exchange of encrypted data, based on JSON and Base64. It forms part of the JavaScript Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) suite of protocols.
JWS - JSON Web Signature
JSON Web Signature is an IETF proposed standard [RFC7515] for signing arbitrary data. JWS is a way to ensure integrity of information in a highly serialisable, machine-readable format. That means that it is information, along with proof that the information hasn't changed since being signed. It can be used for sending information from one web site to another, and is especially aimed at communications on the web. It even contains a compact form optimised for applications like URI query parameters.
JWT - JSON Web Tokens
JWT - JSON Web Tokens is a JSON-based open standard (RFC 7519) for creating access tokens that assert a certain number of claims. For example, a server could generate a token that has the claim "logged in as admin" and provide that to a client. The client could then use that token to prove that it is logged in as admin.
K8S
The container orchestration tool that hosts the Self platform.
KYC - Know Your Customer
Know your Customer (Client) checks allows businesses to verify the identity of their clients. Guidelines are often dictated by government or financial authorities such as the FCA.
Node
A node is a device on a blockchain network, that is in essence the foundation of the technology, allowing it to function and survive. The role of a node is to support the network by maintaining a copy of a blockchain and, in some cases, to process transactions.
OAuth - Open Authorisation
OAuth is a simple way to interact with private data, allowing third parties limited access to a web-service via access tokens at the authorisation of the account owner.
Open Banking
The use of open API’s to enable third parties access to details from an individual's bank account.
Oracle
An oracle, in the context of blockchains and smart contracts, is an agent that finds and verifies real-world occurrences and submits this information to a blockchain to be used by smart contracts. ... An oracle is a data feed – provided by third party service – designed for use in smart contracts on the blockchain. In the case of Self/Biler a good example is the Client Payment Oracle/Fiat Currency Gateway. This gets notified by webhook from the bank (ideally) of the deposit of fiat currency into a client money account, it then credits the deposited fiat funds with a corresponding tokenized form of the currency which can be controlled by a User’s private keys.
P2P - Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing is a distributed application architecture that partitions workloads between peers.
PDS - Personal Data Store
A platform where people can securely store, manage and share their data.
PIFI - Personally Identifiable Financial Information
Personally identifiable financial information (PIFI) is any type of personally identifiable information (PII) that is linked to that person's finances. A credit card number is a prime example of PIFI.
PII - Personally Identifiable Information
Personally identifiable information (PII) is any data that could potentially identify a specific individual. Any information that can be used to distinguish one person from another and can be used for de-anonymising anonymous data can be considered PII.PII can be sensitive or non-sensitive. Non-sensitive PII is information that can be transmitted in an unencrypted form without resulting in harm to the individual. Non-sensitive PII can be easily gathered from public records, phone books, corporate directories and websites.
Sensitive PII is information which, when disclosed, could result in harm to the individual whose privacy has been breached. Sensitive PII should, therefore, be encrypted in transit and when data is at rest. Such information includes biometric information, medical information, personally identifiable financial information (PIFI) and unique identifiers such as passport or Social Security numbers.
PISP - Payment Initiation Service Provider
A Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) lets you pay companies directly from your bank account rather than using your debit or credit card through a third-party such as Visa or MasterCard. A PISP needs your explicit consent before providing you with this kind of service.
PKI - Public Key Infrastructure
A public key infrastructure (PKI) is a set of roles, policies, and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store, and revoke digital certificates and manage public-key encryption.
Ripple
Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange and remittance network created by Ripple Labs Inc. that provides one frictionless experience to send money globally using the power of blockchain and the XRP token.
SC - Smart Contract
Smart contracts are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller being directly written into lines of code. The code and the agreements contained therein exist across a distributed, decentralised blockchain network.A smart contract is a computer protocol intended to digitally facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract. Smart contracts allow the performance of credible transactions without third parties. These transactions are trackable and irreversible. Stablecoin/Stable Token
A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to minimise the price volatility. Stablecoins are used as stores of value or units of account, as well as in other use cases where volatile cryptocurrencies may be less desirable. Authors of stablecoins use different designs to achieve price stability. The value of a stablecoin can be pegged to fiat currencies, or to exchange traded commodities (such as gold, silver, other precious and industrial metals, etc). Stablecoins can be centralised where they can be backed by fiat and exchange-traded commodities directly, or in a decentralised fashion via leveraging other cryptocurrency projects in different ways.
Stellar
Stellar is an open-source, decentralised protocol for digital currency to fiat currency transfers which allows cross-border transactions between any pair of currencies using the XLM token.
Token
Crypto tokens are special kind of virtual currency tokens that reside on their own blockchains and represent an asset or utility. For example, one can have a crypto token that represents x number of customer loyalty points on a blockchain that is used to manage such details for a retail chain.
TrustLine (Stellar/Ripple Specific)
The Trustlines Network is the original Ripple idea built on Ethereum. The Trustlines Network targets the problem of fair access to money by implementing money as bilateral peer-to-peer issued blockchain-based credit. We are developing an open source protocol, including a mobile app empowering end-users to make global payments based on their existing trusted social network.
UID - Unique Identifier
A unique identifier (UID) is a numeric or alphanumeric string that is associated with a single entity within a given system. UIDs make it possible to address that entity so that it can be accessed and interacted with.
Use Case
Use Cases are a list of actions or event steps between a role and a system to achieve a goal, and typically consist of a set of possible scenarios between the two.
Verifier
The party who needs to trust a claim
VoIP - Voice over IP
Voice over Internet Protocol delivers voice communications over the internet, likely meaning it is lower cost. An example of this would be Skype.
WOT - Web of Trust
a web of trust is a concept used in PGP, GnuPG, and other OpenPGP-compatible systems to establish the authenticity of the binding between a public key and its owner. Its decentralised trust model is an alternative to the centralised trust model of a public key infrastructure (PKI), which relies exclusively on a certificate authority (or a hierarchy of such). As with computer networks, there are many independent webs of trust, and any user (through their identity certificate) can be a part of, and a link between, multiple webs.