# Glossary

These are the main terms used in the [introduction](QUICK_TOUR.md).
Technical terms are explained in the guides where they are needed.

## Money

**BRN**. Personal income that grows over time while your account is eligible, at the rate chosen by the community. You can spend it, but cannot transfer it to someone else.

**TRST**. The currency people receive when someone pays them by burning BRN. They can then pass that TRST on to others.

**Burn**. Permanently using up BRN. A payment burn creates the same amount of TRST for the recipient; burns for protocol actions, such as endorsements, do not.

**Stake**. BRN temporarily locked behind a verification or challenge decision. The rules determine whether it is returned or lost.

**Expiry**. The point when TRST becomes too old to spend under the chosen lifetime. Unused BRN does not expire.

**Revocation**. Making TRST invalid after a successful fraud challenge against the account whose BRN created it. This can affect money that has already changed hands.

## Accounts and people

**Account**. Your address and the signed record of its activity on the network.

**Wallet**. The app that manages your keys, shows your balances and signs your actions.

**Node**. Software that checks transactions, keeps network records and shares them with other nodes.

**Verification**. The process for checking that an applicant is a real, unique person, so creating more accounts does not give them more incomes or votes.

**Verifier**. An eligible volunteer drawn randomly to help judge an application or challenge. The group drawn is called a panel. Its members judge the evidence; other nodes can check how they were chosen.

**Representative**. An account that votes to confirm signed account entries, called blocks. Each verified person can give their equal voting weight to a chosen representative. This role is separate from judging verification applications.

## Changing the rules

**Governance**. How verified participants propose and vote on changes to the protocol's rules.

**Parameter**. A setting the protocol can change, such as the BRN income rate or TRST lifetime.