Glossary
Dusk terminology
Section titled “Dusk terminology”Account
Section titled “Account”Accounts in Dusk manage transactions with different visibility levels. An account is linked to a profile and categorized as either a Shielded Account (privacy-preserving) or a Public Account (transparent).
Archive Node
Section titled “Archive Node”An archive node stores the full historical record of the Dusk blockchain and exposes archive-specific historical queries. Archive mode can also participate in consensus because it extends the regular node stack rather than replacing it.
Citadel
Section titled “Citadel”Citadel is Dusk’s identity and access layer (selective disclosure).
Confidential Security Contract Standard (XSC)
Section titled “Confidential Security Contract Standard (XSC)”Live Dusk L1 technology for confidential smart contracts that can be adapted to business requirements such as privacy constraints and eligibility rules.
Delivery versus payment (DvP)
Section titled “Delivery versus payment (DvP)”A live Dusk L1 contract capability that coordinates the asset and payment legs of settlement so one leg does not complete without the other. See the public Dusk DvP example.
Dusk is the name of the organization and the broader product and network suite. Where the technical meaning could be ambiguous, these docs use Dusk network for the protocol generally and Dusk L1 for the complete base layer.
The native token of Dusk. It is used to pay for transaction fees (gas) and staking.
DuskDS
Section titled “DuskDS”DuskDS is the Dusk Data Availability and Settlement layer: the consensus, finality, and data-availability foundation of the Dusk L1, including its Moonlight and Phoenix transaction models.
DuskEVM
Section titled “DuskEVM”DuskEVM is a live EVM execution environment on the public DuskEVM testnet. It uses DuskDS as its settlement and data availability layer.
DuskVM
Section titled “DuskVM”DuskVM is the Rust/WASM smart-contract execution environment that runs directly on the Dusk L1.
Hedger
Section titled “Hedger”Hedger is the live evolution of Zedger, available on the public DuskEVM testnet.
Forge is the live DuskVM contract framework and code-generation tool for Rust/WASM contracts.
Stake Abstraction (Hyperstaking)
Section titled “Stake Abstraction (Hyperstaking)”Stake abstraction (also called hyperstaking) is a live, permissionless capability that lets smart contracts participate in staking and manage rewards with on-chain logic.
See: Stake Abstraction.
Kadcast
Section titled “Kadcast”Kadcast is Dusk’s P2P networking layer.
The smallest denomination of DUSK.
1 DUSK = 1,000,000,000 LUX
Moonlight
Section titled “Moonlight”Moonlight is Dusk’s public, account-based transaction model.
Phoenix
Section titled “Phoenix”Phoenix is Dusk’s live shielded, UTXO-based transaction model. Admission of new Phoenix transactions is temporarily paused pending a follow-up upgrade; Phoenix is not retired.
Profile
Section titled “Profile”A profile is a pairing of a Moonlight (public) account and a Phoenix (shielded) account derived from a single mnemonic.
Wallets use profiles so you can manage both models side-by-side while keeping keys and addresses organized.
Provisioner
Section titled “Provisioner”A provisioner is a staker running a node that can be selected for consensus duties (block generation and committee slots).
See: Run a provisioner node.
Public Account
Section titled “Public Account”A public account uses Moonlight and is designed for transparent transactions. It uses public addresses.
RUES (Rusk Universal Event System) is the event system used to stream chain events to external consumers.
Rusk is the Rust node implementation for the Dusk L1. It runs DuskDS consensus and DuskVM execution.
Rusk Wallet
Section titled “Rusk Wallet”The Rusk Wallet is the official CLI wallet for Dusk.
Shielded Account
Section titled “Shielded Account”A shielded account uses Phoenix and is designed for privacy-preserving transactions.
Succinct Attestation
Section titled “Succinct Attestation”Succinct Attestation is Dusk’s proof-of-stake consensus protocol.
W3sper SDK
Section titled “W3sper SDK”W3sper is the live JavaScript SDK for direct Rusk access and Dusk application integrations.
Web Wallet
Section titled “Web Wallet”The Web Wallet is Dusk’s official hosted browser wallet interface.
Zedger
Section titled “Zedger”Zedger is a protocol for private, compliant issuance and management of regulated assets. It is currently paused in favor of Hedger.