Breakdown of Nolus-related terminology

Cosmos SDK

The Cosmos-SDK is a platform for building multi-asset Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains. It is both a library for building and securely interacting with blockchain applications.

Semi-permissioned

A property of the Nolus chain. This means that only the Leaser contract can deploy Lease contract instances and no one else would be able to deploy a custom smart contract. This property is naturally subject to governance by the NLS stakers. Except for the Lease all the contracts are deployed at the genesis.

Oracle

Blockchain oracles are a special kind of technology meant to bring external information on-chain and deliver it to smart contracts. Essentially, they serve as bridges between blockchain and the real world.

Interest

Interest is the monetary charge for the privilege of borrowing money, typically expressed as an annual percentage rate (APR). Interest is the amount of money a lender or financial institution receives for lending out money. Interest can also refer to the amount of ownership a stockholder has in a company, usually expressed as a percentage.

Annual Percentage Rate (APR)

The annual return is the return that an investment provides over a period of time, expressed as a time-weighted annual percentage. Sources of returns can include dividends, returns of capital, and capital appreciation. The annual return rate is measured against the initial investment amount and represents a geometric mean rather than a simple arithmetic mean.

Total Value Locked

Total Value Locked or TVL is a formula that shows the total value of all crypto assets locked up (or staked) in a DeFi (decentralized finance) protocol. TVL is often used to represent the total activity, interest, and even value of a DeFi protocol for potential investors. This number is usually represented in USD, although some protocols represent the number in total ETH or BTC value.

Derivative

Derivative refers to a type of financial contract whose value is dependent on an underlying asset, group of assets, or benchmark.

Borrowers

A person or company that has received money from another party with the agreement that the money will be repaid. Most borrowers borrow at interest, meaning they pay a certain percentage of the principal amount to the lender as compensation for borrowing.

Lender

A lender is an individual, a group (public or private), or a financial institution that makes funds available to a person or business with the expectation that the funds will be repaid. Repayment will include the payment of any interest or fees.

Deposit

A deposit is a financial term that means money held at a bank or a protocol. A deposit is a transaction involving a transfer of money to another party for safekeeping. However, a deposit can refer to a portion of the money used as security or collateral for the delivery of a good or service.

Reward

Rewards paid in the NLS token to users.

Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC)

Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) is an open-source protocol to relay messages between independently distributed ledgers, linking one blockchain to another. Simply put, they act as “relays” for data to be transmitted to blockchains, which then create a whole blockchain network.

Interchain Accounts (ICA)

Interchain Accounts outlines a cross-chain account management protocol built upon IBC. ICA-enabled chains can programmatically create accounts on other ICA-enabled chains and control these accounts via IBC transactions (instead of signing with a private key). Interchain accounts retain all of the capabilities of a normal account (i.e. stake, send, vote) but instead are managed by a separate chain via IBC in a way such that the owner account on the controller chain retains full control over any Interchain account(s) it registers on host chain(s). In the case of Nolus, this functionality is extended by allowing lease contracts to register ICA accounts on host networks.

DeFi Lease

The DeFi Lease is a lending solution providing the borrower with more digital assets than his current equity. To borrow assets, the borrower locks up a down payment as collateral and can leverage his holdings up to 3 times in a preferred digital asset.

Treasury

System account where NLS tokens used to reward lenders is stored. The Treasury is periodically replenished with the protocol's profits.

Leaser

Leaser is a customer-facing smart contract keeping a register of customers’ Lease instances and a set of parameters used when opening new Leases.

Liquidity Providers’ Pool (LPP)

Liquidity Providers’ Pool (LPP) serves lenders and borrows requests from A to Z. LPP calculates the total principal and interest for a DeFi Lease instance and manages repayments and deposits.

LPN

Native stable currency for a Liquidity Providers’ Pool (LPP)