Glossary
In this documentation portal you will encounter a handful of highly-specific technical terms that are used throughout the ZBD Platform and APIs. Below you will find a Glossary of the main terms used. This list is not exhaustive and is meant to help you understand the concepts and terminology used in the documentation.
B
BOLTs
The Basis of Lightning Technology (BOLT) are specifications that describe the rules and standards required for participants of the Lightning Network. The standards established by the BOLTs allow different Lightning implementation software to integrate with one another and form a network.
BOLT11
BOLT11 is the 11th specification document for the BOLTs (Basis of Lightning Technology), and it is the invoice protocol for Lightning Payments. It is a simple, extendable, QR-code-ready protocol for requesting payments over Lightning.
C
Charge
A Charge is the name given inside of the ZBD Platform to a Lightning Network invoice (BOLT11) that is sent to a peer to request a Bitcoin payment.
I
Invoice
Invoices, charges, payment requests — these are all terms for the same thing. Invoices are used to request payments from a peer on the Bitcoin Lightning Network.
L
Lightning Address
A Lightning Address is a unique internet identifier that identifies a user inside of a given provider. It resembles an email address format with username @ provider.com. The ZBD API allows a developer to send payments to any user of a company, wallet provider, or self-hosted user software that supports the open source protocol.
By leveraging Lightning Addresses a developer is able to support sending payments to users of any provider, with frictionless user experience.
It’s like an email address, but for your Bitcoin.
Every ZBD user has a unique Lightning Address based on their ZBD Gamertag resembling satoshi@zbd.gg.
LNURL
LNURL is a set of HTTP open API standards that aim to facilitate the interactions between service providers (stores, websites, apps) and wallets (users). The idea is to provide for standardized ways of performing Bitcoin Lightning Network invoice-orchestration and payment-requesting.
LNURL technologis are leveraged inside of the ZBD Platform in places such as Static Charges and Withdrawal Requests. LNURL is also the base protocol for the Lightning Address user standard.
M
Millisatoshi
The ZBD API is built on millisatoshis. 1,000 millisatoshis make up 1 satoshi. And 100 million satoshis make up 1 Bitcoin. This is akin to 100 cents being equal to 1 dollar.
While the API is built with millisatoshis in mind, the currently-allowed minimum amount for transaction sizes is 1 satoshi, or 1,000 millisatoshis. 1 satoshi is currently valued at $0.0005 USD, and the system was built with scalability in mind, both in amount size, and Bitcoin valuation.
100,000,000 satoshis = 1 Bitcoin
1,000 millisatoshis = 1 satoshi
O
On-chain
On-chain is a term used to describe any data that is registered on the Bitcoin blockchain, in contrast with off-chain data, which is not stored on the blockchain. On-chain data are always Bitcoin transactions, while off-chain data can be an unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction or any other type of data.
Off-chain
Off-chain is a term used to describe any data that is not registered on the Bitcoin blockchain. Off-chain data can be Bitcoin transactions that were not sent to the blockchain, data on the Lightning Network, or data on other blockchains, such as a sidechain.
S
Satoshi
Satoshis, or “sats” for short, are the atomic unit of Bitcoin, named after Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. A Bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshis (1 BTC = 100,000,000 sats).
There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin, and there will only ever be 2.1 quadrillion sats.
This makes Bitcoin more divisible, enabling payments smaller than 0.0005 USD.
V
Voucher
A ZBD Voucher is an 8-digit code that can be used in any product in the ZBD suite to redeem for Bitcoin on the Lightning Network. It is usually used as a tool for onboarding new users to Bitcoin.
W
Withdrawal Request
A Withdrawal Request is the direct opposite of a Payment Request (or Charge). The Withdrawal Request is used to request a withdrawal from a user’s wallet, whereas a Payment Request is used to request a payment to a user’s wallet.
While both user flows are nearly identical — scan QR code and press submit — behind the scenes one flow is sending Bitcoin over Lightning while the other is request Bitcoin to be sent over Lightning. If you ever want to receive Bitcoin by scanning a QR code, then that’s what a Withdrawal Request effectively enables.
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