Glossary

A

AWS EKS Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service - Managed Kubernetes service that makes it easy to run Kubernetes on AWS.

Auto-scaling Automatic adjustment of compute resources based on current demand to maintain performance and optimize costs.

B

Beacon Chain The consensus layer of Ethereum 2.0 that coordinates validators and manages proof-of-stake consensus.

Blockchain Node A computer that maintains a copy of the blockchain and participates in the network by validating transactions.

C

Consensus Client Software that implements the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism in Ethereum 2.0 (e.g., Prysm, Lighthouse).

Container Orchestration Automated deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications using platforms like Kubernetes.

D

DynamoDB AWS's managed NoSQL database service used for Terraform state locking in CapSign infrastructure.

E

Execution Client Software that processes transactions and maintains the execution layer of Ethereum (e.g., Reth, Geth).

EKS Cluster A managed Kubernetes cluster running on Amazon Web Services infrastructure.

F

Finalization The process by which blocks become irreversible in a proof-of-stake blockchain system.

G

Grafana Open-source analytics and monitoring platform used for visualizing metrics and creating dashboards.

H

Helm Chart A collection of files that describe Kubernetes resources and can be packaged and deployed as a unit.

High Availability System design that ensures continuous operation and minimal downtime through redundancy and failover mechanisms.

I

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files rather than manual processes.

Ingress Controller Kubernetes component that manages external access to services within a cluster, typically HTTP/HTTPS traffic.

J

JWT (JSON Web Token) Compact, URL-safe token format used for secure authentication between Ethereum execution and consensus clients.

K

kubectl Command-line tool for interacting with Kubernetes clusters and managing containerized applications.

Kubernetes Open-source container orchestration platform for automating deployment, scaling, and management of applications.

L

Layer 2 (L2) Secondary blockchain frameworks built on top of existing blockchains to improve scalability and reduce costs.

Load Balancer Component that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers to ensure high availability and performance.

M

Mainnet The primary public blockchain network where real transactions occur and have economic value.

Monitoring Stack Collection of tools (Prometheus, Grafana, AlertManager) used to observe and alert on system performance.

N

Node Group Collection of Amazon EC2 instances that serve as worker nodes in an EKS cluster.

Network Policy Kubernetes specification that controls traffic flow between pods and external endpoints at the network layer.

O

Optimism Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that uses optimistic rollups to increase transaction throughput and reduce costs.

Operator Kubernetes controller that extends the platform's functionality to manage complex applications automatically.

P

Pod The smallest deployable unit in Kubernetes, consisting of one or more containers sharing storage and network.

Prometheus Open-source monitoring system with dimensional data model and flexible query language.

Prysm Ethereum 2.0 consensus client implementation written in Go, known for its performance and user-friendly interface.

Q

Quality of Service (QoS) Kubernetes feature that manages resource allocation and prioritization for pods based on their requirements.

R

RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) Security mechanism that restricts system access based on the roles of individual users or services.

Reth High-performance Ethereum execution client written in Rust, designed for speed and efficiency.

Rollup Layer 2 scaling technique that bundles multiple transactions into a single transaction on the main blockchain.

S

Spot Instance Amazon EC2 instance that uses spare computing capacity at significantly reduced costs but may be interrupted.

Staking Process of participating in proof-of-stake consensus by locking up cryptocurrency to help secure the network.

StatefulSet Kubernetes workload API object used to manage stateful applications with persistent identity and storage.

T

Terraform Infrastructure as Code tool that allows you to define cloud resources using declarative configuration files.

Testnet Test blockchain network used for development and testing without using real cryptocurrency.

V

Validator Node in a proof-of-stake network that proposes and validates new blocks in exchange for rewards.

VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) Isolated section of AWS cloud where you can launch resources in a defined virtual network.

W

Worker Node Machine in a Kubernetes cluster that runs containerized applications and is managed by the control plane.

Y

YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) Human-readable data serialization standard commonly used for configuration files in Kubernetes and Helm.

A