Glossary

Nostr Terms

Nostr: Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays. A decentralized protocol for social media and messaging.

npub: Nostr public key in bech32 format (starts with "npub1..."). This is a user's public identifier.

nsec: Nostr secret/private key in bech32 format (starts with "nsec1..."). Must be kept secret.

Relay: A server that stores and forwards Nostr events. Anyone can run a relay.

Event: A signed message in Nostr. Everything is an event (posts, messages, authentication, etc.).

NIP: Nostr Implementation Possibility. These are protocol specifications (like "NIPs" = RFCs for Nostr).

NIP-05: A verification method linking a Nostr key to a domain name (like email).

Subkey: A delegated key that can act on behalf of a main key with limited permissions.

Lightning Network: A Layer 2 protocol built on Bitcoin for fast, cheap transactions.

Satoshi (sat): The smallest unit of Bitcoin. 1 BTC = 100,000,000 sats.

Millisat (msat): One thousandth of a satoshi. Lightning Network's smallest unit.

Invoice: A payment request in Lightning Network format (starts with "lnbc...").

Preimage: Proof of payment in Lightning Network. Hash of this is in the invoice.

Channel: A payment channel between two Lightning nodes allowing off-chain transactions.

NWC: Nostr Wallet Connect. A protocol for requesting payments via Nostr.

Routing: Finding a path through the Lightning Network to deliver a payment.

Portal SDK Daemon: The WebSocket server that handles Nostr and Lightning operations.

Auth Token: Secret token used to authenticate with the Portal daemon API.

Key Handshake: Initial exchange where user shares their public key and preferred relays.

Challenge-Response: Authentication method where you challenge a key and verify the signature.

Single Payment: One-time Lightning payment.

Recurring Payment: Subscription-based payment with automatic billing.

Cashu: An ecash protocol built on Lightning. Used for tickets/vouchers in Portal.

Mint: A Cashu mint that issues and redeems ecash tokens.

Cashu Token: A bearer token representing sats, issued by a mint.

Mint: A server that issues and redeems Cashu tokens.

Blind Signature: Cryptographic technique allowing mints to sign tokens without knowing their value.

Burn: Redeeming a Cashu token back to sats at a mint.

WebSocket: A protocol for real-time bidirectional communication.

Hex: Hexadecimal format (base 16). Nostr keys are often shown in hex.

Bech32: An encoding format used for Bitcoin addresses and Nostr keys.

JWT: JSON Web Token. Used for session management and API authentication.

Session Token: A temporary token proving a user's authenticated session.

Stream ID: Identifier for a long-running operation (like payment status updates).

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