Glossary

Definitions of technical terms used in the Nox protocol. Use the search bar to find a term by name or definition, or filter by category.

60 terms in the Nox Protocol glossary

ACL (Access Control List)

EVM

On-chain access control mechanism allowing to define who can see (Viewer) or use (Admin) a handle. Permissions can be persistent or transient.

Admin

EVM

ACL role with full control over a handle: can perform compute, grant permissions (allow), and add viewers.

Advanced Functions

EVM

Second category of computation primitives: more complex operations like transfer, mint, burn for confidential tokens.

B2B2B

Market

cToken business model: iExec (1st B) provides technology to Builders/Protocols (2nd B) who serve their end-users (3rd B).

cDeFi

General

Confidential DeFi - Decentralized finance with transaction and balance privacy. Nox is iExec's cDeFi protocol.

Chain ID

EVM

Unique identifier of the blockchain chain (4 bytes) included in a handle's structure (bytes 26-29) to guarantee cross-chain uniqueness.

Ciphertext

Off-chain

Encrypted form of confidential data (balance, amount). Stored off-chain in the Handle Gateway database, never publicly exposed on the blockchain.

Composability

General

One of Nox's pillars: ability to integrate with the existing DeFi ecosystem and third-party protocols.

Compute

TEE

Confidential computation operation on handles (add, sub, div, transfer, etc.) executed by a Runner in a TEE.

Confidential Token (alias: Private Token)

General

Wrapped version of an ERC-20 with encrypted balances and amounts.

Copy-trading

Market

Practice of copying investment strategies of other traders. DeFi transparency facilitates this practice, which privacy limits.

Core Primitives (alias: Primitives)

EVM

Basic protocol operations: add(), sub(), div(), PlaintextToEncrypted(), select(). First category of computation primitives.

Custom Functions

EVM

Third category of primitives: custom functions developed by protocol users.

Domain Separator

EVM

Component of the EIP-712 digest including name, version, chainId and contract address. Used to sign Handle Gateway messages.

Dstack

TEE

Framework for running Docker containers inside TEEs. Used by Nox to deploy off-chain components (Handle Gateway, Runners, KMS) in Intel TDX CVMs (Confidential Virtual Machines).

ECIES

Cryptography

Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme - Encryption framework used by KMS that composes different algorithms such as AES-GCM-256.

EIP-1153

EVM

Ethereum standard for transient storage (tstore). Used for transient permissions that are erased at the end of the transaction.

EIP-712

EVM

Ethereum standard for typed signatures. Used to verify Handle Gateway signatures with digest including handle, owner, app, and createdAt.

Enclave

TEE

Hardware-isolated environment in a TEE where secure components run (Handle Gateway, Runners, KMS).

ERC-20

EVM

Fungible token standard on Ethereum. cToken allows wrapping any ERC-20 into a confidential version.

Front-running

Market

Practice where validators/miners anticipate and execute transactions before users to profit from them. Privacy protects against this.

GDPR

Market

General Data Protection Regulation - European regulation on personal data protection. Nox enables compliance via programmable auditability.

Handle

EVM

Unique 32-byte identifier stored on-chain that points to an off-chain ciphertext. Structure: truncated hash (26 bytes) + Chain ID (4) + Type (1) + Version (1).

Handle Gateway

Off-chain

Secure entry point of the system operating in a TEE. Encrypts user data, stores ciphertexts, and serves as interface to the Handle↔Ciphertext database.

Ingestor

Off-chain

Dedicated service that monitors the blockchain to detect primitive events (Add, Sub, Transfer...) and sends them to the message queue.

Intel TDX

TEE

Trust Domain Extensions - Intel's TEE technology used by Nox to create hardware-isolated secure enclaves.

Interoperability

General

One of Nox's pillars: compatibility with existing blockchains, notably Arbitrum.

keccak256

Cryptography

Cryptographic hash function used to calculate preHandle and EIP-712 digests in the Nox protocol.

KMS (Key Management System)

Off-chain

Vault that manages decryption delegation.

MEV (Maximal Extractable Value)

Market

Value extracted by validators/miners by reordering transactions. cToken privacy protects against MEV.

MiCA

Market

Markets in Crypto-Assets - European regulation on crypto-assets. Nox enables compliance via selective disclosure.

MPC (Multi-Party Computation)

Cryptography

Cryptographic technology allowing multiple parties to jointly compute without revealing their inputs.

NoxCompute

EVM

Main on-chain smart contract for receiving and coordinating confidential computation requests.

Off-chain

Off-chain

Storage or computations performed off the blockchain. Ciphertexts are stored off-chain in the Handle Gateway database.

Ownership

EVM

Handle ownership determined by the associated public key. Can be transferred via the sponsoring mechanism.

Payload

EVM

Data submitted in a transaction containing necessary information (public key, handles, etc.).

Persistent Permissions

EVM

ACL permissions stored via sstore (EVM storage) that survive the end of the transaction.

Plaintext

TEE

Unencrypted data in clear. In Nox, data exists in plaintext only in the Runner's TEE enclave during execution.

PlaintextToEncrypted

EVM

Primitive that creates a handle for a public plaintext value, useful for initializing counters to zero.

preHandle

EVM

Hash calculated via keccak256(operator, operands, NoxCompte, msg.sender, block.timestamp, outputIndex) before being truncated to form the final handle.

Primitives (alias: Core Primitives)

EVM

Basic computation operations: addition, subtraction, division, conditional selection.

Private Token (alias: Confidential Token)

General

Wrapped version of an ERC-20 with encrypted balances and amounts.

RA-HTTPS

TEE

Initiating an HTTPS connection between the SDK and the Handle Gateway after verifying the trustworthiness of Nox components via Remote Attestation.

Remote Attestation

TEE

Cryptographically verifiable proof that a component runs in a genuine TEE hardware with the expected code.

Runner

TEE

Executor that performs confidential computations on encrypted data in a secure TEE environment.

RWA (Real World Assets)

Market

Real-world assets tokenized on blockchain (real estate, bonds, etc.). Key segment targeted by cToken requiring privacy.

SDK

General

Software Development Kit - Client-side software development kit allowing developers to integrate cToken into their applications.

Secret shares

Cryptography

Fragments of the private key distributed among KMS nodes in the threshold protocol. No single node possesses the complete key.

Selective Disclosure

General

Ability to reveal information only to authorized parties (auditors, regulators) via the ACL system, without public exposure.

Slippage

Market

Difference between expected price and actual execution price of a transaction. Privacy protects against slippage caused by front-running.

sstore

EVM

EVM opcode for persistent storage. Used to store persistent ACL permissions that survive the transaction.

TEE (Trusted Execution Environment)

TEE

Secure execution environment with hardware isolation (Intel TDX). Guarantees privacy and integrity of sensitive operations.

Threshold Cryptography

Cryptography

Threshold cryptography where the private key is fragmented among n nodes. At least t nodes must collaborate for any operation.

TradFi

Market

Traditional Finance - Traditional finance (banks, funds). Major target of cToken which requires privacy to enter DeFi.

Transient Permissions

EVM

ACL permissions using tstore (EIP-1153), less expensive in gas, automatically erased at the end of the transaction.

tstore

EVM

EVM opcode for transient storage (EIP-1153). Used for transient ACL permissions less expensive in gas.

TVL (Total Value Locked)

Market

Total value locked in a DeFi protocol. Key metric to measure adoption. ETH = $69B, ARB = $2.9B.

Viewer

EVM

Read-only ACL role: can request handle decryption but cannot perform compute or modify permissions.

Wrap/Unwrap

EVM

Conversion operations between public ERC-20 tokens and their confidential versions. Reversible at any time.

ZK (Zero-Knowledge)

Cryptography

Zero-Knowledge Proofs - Technology allowing to prove a statement without revealing the underlying information.

60 terms displayed