Aleo Glossary

The identity primitive on Aleo, consisting of a private key, compute key, view key, and address.

The public identifier for an Aleo account, derived from the private key through the account key hierarchy.

The native token of the Aleo network, used for transaction fees, staking, and program execution costs.

The low-level bytecode format that Leo compiles to. Aleo Instructions run directly on the Aleo Virtual Machine and represent the actual on-chain program code.

Aleo's consensus mechanism, a privacy-focused Byzantine Fault Tolerant protocol adapted from frameworks initially developed for Aptos and Sui.

The governance and standards proposal system for the Aleo ecosystem. ARCs define token standards, protocol changes, and community conventions.

Runtime assertions in Leo that cause a transaction to fail if the condition is not met. Used for access control and invariant checking.

The specific elliptic curve used by Aleo's cryptographic stack. Defines the field elements, group elements, and scalars available in Leo programs.

The encrypted form of an Aleo record as stored on-chain. Only the record owner (via their view key) can decrypt it back to plaintext.

The proof-of-work mechanism that creates new Aleo credits. Provers solve partial solutions to a mathematical puzzle, contributing to network security while earning rewards.

A required function in every Aleo program that defines the program's upgrade and governance policy.

The built-in Aleo program that manages all credit operations - transfers, fee payments, staking, and delegation.

Offloading zero-knowledge proof generation to a remote service instead of computing proofs locally.

The process of publishing an Aleo program and its verifying keys to the blockchain, making it callable by any user.

A transaction that calls a transition function on a deployed program. Distinguished from deployment transactions.

The base arithmetic type in Aleo's zero-knowledge circuits, representing an element of a finite field.

On-chain logic that runs after proof verification to update public mapping state, now expressed as 'final { }' blocks in Leo.

A helper function in Leo defined outside the program block that is automatically inlined by the compiler. Used for code reuse without additional proving overhead.

A point on the elliptic curve used in Aleo's cryptographic operations, represented by the group type in Leo.

The hash function families available in Leo for computing deterministic outputs from inputs.

Cross-program calls in Leo that let one program invoke transitions defined in another deployed program.

Aleo's high-level programming language for writing private applications that compile to zero-knowledge circuits.

A public on-chain key-value store used by Aleo programs to maintain shared, globally visible state.

The base denomination for Aleo credits. 1 credit equals 1,000,000 microcredits. All on-chain fees are denominated in microcredits.

A unique identifier derived from a record that proves the record has been consumed without revealing which record it was. Prevents double-spending.

Aleo's off-chain computation model where programs run locally and only a zero-knowledge proof is submitted to the network.

Aleo's deployment unit, analogous to a smart contract, that defines types, functions, and state for on-chain execution.

The unique identifier for a deployed Aleo program, in the format name.aleo. Program IDs are globally unique and immutable once deployed.

An entity on the Aleo network that generates zero-knowledge proofs, either for user transactions or for coinbase puzzle rewards.

Cryptographic artifacts generated during program compilation. The proving key creates proofs; the verifying key checks them.

The arithmetic constraint format used to represent Leo programs as zero-knowledge circuits for proof generation.

An encrypted UTXO-like state object that stores private data belonging to an Aleo program or user.

A numeric type in Leo representing an element of the scalar field of Aleo's elliptic curve, used in cryptographic operations.

The address of the account that initiated the current transition. The Aleo equivalent of Solidity's msg.sender.

A cryptographic signature produced by an Aleo private key that proves the signer authorized a specific message or transaction.

Aleo's node software that manages networking, consensus, and block production for the Aleo blockchain.

Aleo's virtual machine that compiles, executes, and proves program logic using zero-knowledge cryptography.

Persistent on-chain state variables in Leo, including storage variables and storage vectors. Distinct from mappings and records.

A public composite data type in Leo that holds named fields. Unlike records, structs carry no ownership or privacy semantics.

The three Aleo network environments - devnet for local development, testnet for public testing, and mainnet for production deployment.

The on-chain data structure that wraps one or more transitions along with a fee.

A program function execution that consumes and produces records, representing a state change on the Aleo network (legacy term, now simply a function call).

A network participant that verifies zero-knowledge proofs, executes finalize logic, and produces blocks on the Aleo blockchain.

Aleo's zero-knowledge proof system, the successor to Marlin, used to generate and verify succinct proofs of program execution.

A cryptographic key that allows decryption of records owned by an account without granting spending authority.

A cryptographic method that lets one party prove a statement is true without revealing the underlying data.