Glossary

nom

The French word for name. Also commonly known in the phrase “nom de plume” as in a pen name that an author may go by. We let you choose your “nom de net” as in the name you are known by online.

Name

A unique name that has been registered in the context of an application’s namespace. For names that are used across many namespaces, see NomNom and OrgNom.

Namespace

Each Holochain application functions as its own peer-to-peer, encrypted network. This means each app has its own namespace (like when you use a web app like Twitter and you create a username). Each namespace can define the types of names that are used within that app. For example, the Holochain app store enforces unique names for publishers and for apps, but not for users.

Name Type

NomNom

A “global” user name which can be used across ALL applications which include user names and accept global names in their space. You can bind your NomNom to the agent key that you use in each hApp.

OrgNom

A “global” organization name which can be used across ALL applications which include organization names and accept global names in their space. Org names are not bound to a single agent key, instead they maintain a list of agent keys who can act on behalf of that organization.

hApp / App / dApp

A decentralized application which runs without any central servers. In the Nom ecosystem these are generally all Holochain Apps, known as hApps.

NFT

Non-Fungible Token. A silly term popularized by blockchains which were all optimized for easily interchangeable (fungible) crypto tokens. It basically means your item is UNIQUE.

Global

In this context, “global” means usable across many applications, and not constrained to the definitions within a single namespace. If you register a NomNom or OrgNom, those are global in the sense that your name is reserved in every application which participates in the global name purchases.

Holochain

A peer-to-peer data integrity framework which enables easy development and deployment of distributed applications without any centralized infrastructure.

Bootstrap Service

When using a peer-to-peer application, with no central services, you need a way to discover your first peers and “bootstrap” yourself into the network to start coordinating with others using your application. (The term bootstrap comes from a joke about “lifting yourself by your own bootstraps” which is obviously impossible, but the kind of problem involved in starting any system from nothing.)

Agent Key / Agent Public Key

The public key that a user creates when using a Holochain app. This key is both their network address and their public key for purposes of asymmetric encryption functions.

Cryptographic Keys / Key Pair

Key pairs are used in asymmetric encryption where one key is your “public” key and the other is your “private” key or “secret” key. In Nom, you will bind your user name to the public key in each namespace where you use it.

P2P

Peer-to-Peer. Historically, many computer systems are client-server based, meaning that you use a “dumb” client like a web browser, to make requests of a central data store, like a web server. A peer-to-peer system eliminates this pattern, and each participant or node in the system is a full peer able to coordinate and communication with any other peer. In the case of Holochain, the data is also evenly spread across all the peers, to keep the workload small for any one user.

Witness / Witness Node

Run a service to witness transactions for nom to produce micro consensus to hApps and allow hApps to outsource Name Registration services.