Glossary

The words Dassie uses, each in a sentence or two. Each entry links to the page that explains it. The spec keeps the precise definitions in its concepts.

Your node

Node

One running Dassie program, on a server or in the desktop app. Each person on the network runs their own. What is Dassie?

Owner

The person who set a node up with their recovery phrase and logs in to its wallet.

Node ID

Your node's name on the network: a hash of its two public keys, one Ed25519 and one post-quantum (SLH-DSA). It comes from your recovery phrase, so the same phrase always gives the same node ID.

Recovery phrase

Twenty words that every key of your node comes from. They name their realm and the day they were made, and fix a word or two you misread. Anyone who knows them controls your node and its money. Your recovery phrase

Realm

test, with test money, or live, with real money. A node keeps the realm it was set up in for good. Today every node refuses the live realm. Ledgers, books and realms

Wallet

The web app your node serves you, where you send and receive, watch your ledgers and hubs, and decide which apps may pay through your node. Set up your wallet

Setup URL

The one-time link where you finish setting up a new node in your browser. dassie init prints it, and dassie setup-url prints it again. Whoever opens it first sets the node up. Quick Start

Headless setup

Setting a node up with dassie setup from a phrase in a file on its server, for a node nobody sets up in a browser. Headless setup

Money and ledgers

Underlying ledger

A ledger outside Dassie where money really lives. Today that is the XRP Ledger's test network. Ledgers, books and realms

Owner book

Your node's own account on an underlying ledger, such as the XRP Ledger Testnet ledger. It holds your money, funds your hubs and takes what they pay out, and never settles with a peer itself. Add and fund a ledger

External asset

Something your node holds outside its own books, such as its account on the XRP Ledger testnet or its account in a hub. The ledger, not the books, says what it holds. The wallet lists them under Assets. Activity and assets

Settlement scheme

The part of a node that holds or moves money on one ledger, named by an ID such as xrpl-testnet-xrp or hub-xrpl-testnet-xrp. The wallet calls them ledgers. Schemes and hubs

Settlement hub

A small ledger that a few validators keep together, backed by an escrow on the XRP Ledger. Peers settle what they owe each other through a hub they share, and only there. The testnet's XRP hub and DSUSD hub are built into every node. Settlement hubs

Validator

One of the nodes that keep a settlement hub's ledger. A hub has 3f + 1 of them and keeps working with f of them faulty: four tolerate one. Validate a settlement hub

Escrow

The account on the XRP Ledger that holds a hub's money. Only its validators together can move it. Settlement hubs

Hold

Money your node sets aside in a hub for one peer. It is all the credit that peer gets from you, and the hub pays the peer from it even if your node goes away. Peers and holds

Credit

What your node lets a peer owe it. Over a hub it is your hold toward that peer, nothing more. A node knows only the credit it extends, never the credit it gets. Peers and holds

Settlement method

One way two peers settle with each other: a hub they are both in. Two peers in several hubs have one method for each. Peers and holds

Largest packet

The most one packet of a payment may carry. A node counts when to ask a peer to settle in largest packets, never as a share of credit. How a payment travels

Faucet

A service of the XRP Ledger testnet that hands out test XRP for free. Your node asks it for you, at most once a minute. Your first payment

DSUSD

Dassie's test dollar, a token on the XRP Ledger testnet. It has no faucet: you buy it with test XRP on the testnet's XRP/DSUSD pool. It stands in for Ripple's RLUSD on the test network. Dollar tokens and the peg guard

Peg guard

What stops your node converting a dollar token while its pool on the XRP Ledger prices it off a dollar, so nobody can drain your node at the wrong price. Dollar tokens and the peg guard

The network

Peer

A node your node trades with directly, over a hub they share. Payments travel only from peer to peer. Your node finds its peers on its own. Peers and holds

Core node

A node with a domain name that its uplinks promoted. Others dial it, it forwards payments for them, and nodes without a public address connect to it. Core and periphery

Periphery node

A node that is not core: one without a domain name, such as the desktop app, or one with a domain name not promoted yet. It connects out to a few core nodes, gets its addresses beneath theirs, and forwards nothing. Core and periphery

Uplink

A core node that a periphery node peers with and reaches the network through. From the core node's side, the periphery node is its downlink. Core and periphery

Relay

A node or a front door that your node keeps a connection to, so that apps and wallets reach it even without a public address. A node without a domain name keeps the front door at dassiepay.net by default; its owner can name another, or none. Core and periphery

Front door

A relay that answers Open Payments under a domain for the nodes that keep it as their relay, at <node ID>.example.com. The project runs the one at dassiepay.net, the default relay. Run a front door

Name

A word people can say for your node, held for its node ID by the bootstrap nodes. Names run on the test network only, and may be reset there. Names and addresses

Bootstrap node

One of the few nodes that keep the list of who is on the network. The testnet's four are built into every node. A new node asks them first, and a core node registers with them. Joining the network

Majority

The nodes that more than half of the bootstrap nodes list. They are the network's members. Joining the network

Link state

A node's signed description of itself: its address, its two keys, its neighbors and the hubs it settles in. Nodes pass link states on, and route payments by them. Joining the network

ILP address

Where Interledger packets go. A node in the test realm is test.das.<node ID>; a periphery node's addresses lie beneath its uplinks'. How a payment travels

Swap

A packet your node sends a peer that comes back to it in another asset, over another hub the two share, converted at the peer's rate. Nodes swap with their peers to keep what they hold in balance. Exchange rates

Snapshot

A core node's signed statement of the quotes it swaps at, each with a ladder: how much a swap can take before its price falls by more than each of a few set steps. Its peers get it over the peer protocol, and anyone may ask for it on UDP port 7768. Read a node's snapshot

Market maker

Someone who runs dassie market-maker on a node of their own in two hubs. It swaps with its peers when their snapshots and a pool on the XRP Ledger leave a margin, and so brings their holdings back toward balance. Run a market maker

Payments and apps

Interledger

The open protocol Dassie routes payments with. A payment travels as many small packets, each paid only once the receiver confirms it. How a payment travels

Payment pointer

A short way to write a wallet address, starting with $, such as $pay.example.com. Your node's is on your wallet's Dashboard. Receive money

Wallet address

A URL that other wallets pay, one for each currency your node holds, such as https://pay.example.com/pay/xrp. Receive money

Payment request

A link to one payment you are waiting for, with its amount and description, which you hand to whoever pays you. Receive money

Open Payments

The open standard that other wallets and apps use to pay your node, and, with your consent, to pay from it. Accept payments with Open Payments

Grant

Your consent for an app to read or spend from your node, within limits you approve in the wallet. You can revoke it at any time. Connect apps

STREAM

The Interledger protocol that splits a payment into packets and puts it back together at the receiver. STREAM on Dassie

BTP

The protocol an ILP client uses to connect to your node and spend through it. You make a BTP token for each client in the wallet, under API keys. Connect an ILP client over BTP