Glossary

Alice

“The Data Owner” Character - retains full control over the data encrypted for her and determines whom to share the data with.

Bob

“The Data Recipient” Character - the data recipient that Alice intends to share data with.

Capsule

Encrypted symmetric key (KEM) that is eventually re-encrypted.

cFrag

A fragment of ciphertext that is a partial re-encryption produced by a kFrag operation on a Capsule.

Character

A common term for any entity fulfilling a particular role in our cryptographic narrative.

DEM

Data encapsulation mechanism - data encrypted with a symmetric key.

Enrico

“The Encryptor” Character - a data source that encrypts data on behalf of Alice and produces a MessageKit.

KEM

Key encapsulation mechanism - a symmetric key encrypted with an asymmetric key

kFrag

A fragment of a Re-encryption Key.

Label

A title for a classification/categorization of data according to how it is intended to be shared.

MessageKit

The ciphertext (data encrypted with a symmetric key) and the Capsule (encrypted symmetric key) that are stored together.

NU

The Legacy NuCypher token used by nodes for staking.

NuNit

1 NU = 10¹⁸ NuNits.

PKE

Public-key encryption.

Porter

A web service that is the conduit between applications (platform-agnostic) and the PRE nodes on the Threshold network, that performs nucypher protocol operations on behalf of Alice and Bob.

PRE

Proxy re-encryption.

Re-encryption Key

A key that facilitates the transformation of ciphertext from one encryption key to another.

Stamp

The public key for a Character’s signing key pair.

Treasure Map

The locations of Ursulas and associated encrypted kFrags for a policy. Bob will use the treasure map to determine which Ursulas to contact to re-encrypt the data Alice has shared with him.

Umbral

NuCypher’s threshold proxy re-encryption scheme - it takes standard PRE and increases security and performance. See Umbral.

Ursula

“The Proxy in PRE” Character - the PRE node on the Threshold Network that stands ready to re-encrypt data in exchange for payment in fees and token rewards; they enforce the access policy created by Alice.

Operator

An account that is actively doing work in the network as an Ursula node. An Operator is bonded to, and performs work on behalf of, a Staking Provider.