Glossary

Short definitions for terms used across these docs. Longer explanations are linked where one exists.

Accountable privacy: One of Palliora’s two inventions, with Compute Contracts. Data and identities are private by default, and are revealed only through a signed, publicly logged, Guardian-approved request, or by the user’s own choice. See Accountable privacy.

Agent: The Explorer and SDK name for a published Compute Artifact that serves an interactive session. Not the same thing as an AI coding agent.

Agreement ID / Contract ID (CID): The unique identifier assigned to a Compute Contract once its required Guardians have signed it. Every later step (compute request, result, settlement) references this ID.

Artifact ID: The permanent, publicly recorded reference generated when a Compute Artifact is registered. Any number of Compute Contracts can point at the same Artifact ID.

Builder / Requester: Older names for the Publisher and the Retriever, still used on some diagrams.

Calculator: Older name for a compute node, still used in the SDK and on palliora.org.

Compute Artifact: The packaged, executable unit a Compute Contract runs: an image plus a manifest. Called an “agent” in the Explorer and “artefact” in some SDK function names. See Compute Artifacts.

Compute Contract: One of Palliora’s two inventions, with Accountable Privacy. A publicly recorded agreement that defines a computation’s inputs, execution mode, participants, disclosure rules and fees, locked before anything runs. See Compute Contracts.

Compute node: A node that runs a Compute Artifact in the execution mode a contract specifies. Often the same physical machine as a Guardian.

Confidential compute: Running a computation on sensitive data without exposing that data to whoever operates the machine, today through a TEE. See Confidential compute.

Coordination ledger: The proof-of-stake ledger that records agreements, results, disclosure requests and payments. Manas on testnet. It is infrastructure for Guardians and validators, not a chain that applications move to.

Data Accountability Layer:

Data Availability (DA): The guarantee that data committed to Palliora exists, hasn’t been altered, and can be retrieved, without trusting a single storage provider. See Data availability.

Disclosure request: A signed, publicly logged request to reveal a specific sealed record. It needs the approval of a Guardian quorum.

Economy protocol:

Execution mode: How confidential a contract’s execution is: trusted, TEE, SMPC or FHE. Chosen per contract.

Guardian: A node that signs contracts, holds a decryption key share, threshold-decrypts, reviews disclosure requests, and enforces a Compute Contract’s terms as part of a quorum. See Guardian.

KZG commitment: A compact cryptographic proof that a piece of data exists and hasn’t changed, without revealing the data itself. Used throughout Palliora’s Data Availability layer.

Manas: Palliora’s public testnet. It runs the coordination ledger.

milliPALI: The unit the CLI uses for token amounts. 1,000 milliPALI is 1 PALI.

PALI: Palliora’s native token, used to pay fees and staked by Guardians and validators as collateral. See PALI token.

Palliora AI: Palliora’s product for private, accountable compute for AI. In development on testnet. See Palliora AI.

Palliora DeFi: Palliora’s product for private trading on any chain, accountable to regulators. Live on testnet on Hyperliquid and Ethereum. See Palliora DeFi.

Private computer for the open internet: How Palliora describes itself. Compute Contracts and Accountable Privacy, delivered by the Guardian network and encrypted data availability, plugged into the chains and platforms applications already use.

Provenance record: A Palliora AI record of an AI agent run: which models and tools ran, with references to the agreements that coordinated them. See Provenance.

Publisher: The actor that uploads data or a Compute Artifact and sets the terms others pay to use it. See Actors and roles.

Quorum: The minimum number of Guardians that must cooperate before a threshold-protected action, like decryption or disclosure, can happen.

Retriever: The actor that requests access to data or a computation’s result, and pays the agreed fee.

Revoker: The party, or parties, that can decrypt a sealed identity once a disclosure request is approved. Never a single party acting alone.

Selective disclosure (SeDe): The mechanism behind accountable privacy. Older material expands SeDe as “selective de-anonymization”.

Shielded account: A user’s private account in a Palliora-powered app, created by signing a message, not a transaction.

Subscription contract: A Compute Contract invoked repeatedly with fresh encrypted input until its budget or deadline runs out.

TEE (Trusted Execution Environment): A secure enclave in a processor where code runs isolated from the rest of the system, including the host operating system. The main mechanism behind confidential compute today.

Threshold encryption: Splitting the ability to decrypt data across multiple parties, so no single one can decrypt it alone. See Threshold encryption.

Validator: A node that maintains the coordination ledger: ordering transactions, producing and finalizing blocks. See Validator.

Verifier: The actor that checks a computation’s result against the contract’s own tests before settlement releases funds. See Actors and roles.

View key: A scoped, time-bound key a user shares to let someone see specific records, for example a tax adviser or auditor.

ZK nodes: