Glossary
A
Account A logical container within a vault comprising one or more addresses on one or multiple supported networks, created for a defined business purpose (e.g., deposits, treasury operations, staking). Accounts help structure operations and reporting without creating new cryptographic boundaries. See Data Model.
Address A blockchain-specific endpoint used to receive deposits and send funds. Generated from the vault's master key using HD derivation (BIP-44). See Addresses.
Address Book A managed registry of destination addresses with optional approver verification. Addresses can be scoped to the organization or to a specific vault. See Key Features — Address Book.
Approval Policy The rule-set configured per vault governing which roles may propose, approve, or reject transactions, the approval quorum, maker-checker separation, and any additional governance constraints.
Approver A user authorized to approve or reject proposed transactions, but not to initiate them. Each approval is a cryptographic signature (RSA-PSS or Web3) that cannot be forged or repudiated.
Audit Log A tamper-evident record of security and governance events — user authentication, role changes, policy updates, approval events, transaction lifecycle, and cosigner state changes.
Authorization Layer The governance controls (role-based access, maker-checker separation, quorum-based approvals) that determine whether a transaction is authorized to proceed. Distinct from the Execution Layer (MPC signing).
B
Blockchain Network A decentralized, peer-to-peer distributed ledger network operated by independent third parties — not owned or controlled by Carabaas — on which digital assets are recorded and transactions are confirmed.
BIP-32 / BIP-44 Standards for hierarchical deterministic (HD) key derivation. Used to generate unlimited addresses from a single vault's master key without additional MPC ceremonies.
BIP-39 A standard for generating a mnemonic phrase (24 words) from random entropy, used as the root secret for key derivation.
C
CMP Protocol Canetti-Maurer-Paillier protocol — the MPC signing protocol used for ECDSA signatures. Enables multiple parties to jointly produce a signature without reconstructing the private key.
Control / Transaction Authority The practical ability to cause digital assets to move on-chain by producing a valid cryptographic signature. Control is exercised through governance over: who may authorize transactions, the applicable approval thresholds, and who may participate in threshold signing.
Cosigner An HSM-backed or equivalently secured signing component that holds one key share and participates in MPC signing. Operates only after being placed in a ready state via the unsealing procedure. See Cosigner Overview.
D
Digital Assets Any digital or virtual assets that are cryptographically secured and transferable on a blockchain. Includes cryptocurrencies, tokens, stablecoins, and other digital representations of value.
E
Enclave An AWS Nitro Enclave — a hardware-isolated virtual machine with no persistent storage, no network access, and no interactive access. All secret material resides exclusively inside the enclave.
@eth-like
A special network identifier that generates a single address working across all EVM-compatible chains (Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, Arbitrum, etc.).
Execution Layer The cryptographic enforcement layer that performs MPC threshold signing across cosigners, only after Authorization Layer conditions are satisfied. Distinct from governance approvals.
Execution Workflow The end-to-end process by which a transaction progresses from creation through governance validation, quorum satisfaction, cryptographic signing, and network broadcast.
H
HD Derivation
Hierarchical Deterministic key derivation. Path format: m/44/coinType/accountIndex/change/addressIndex. See Architecture.
HSM (Hardware Security Module) A dedicated hardware-backed security device that generates, stores, and protects cryptographic keys within a hardened boundary. Prevents key material from being exposed in plaintext outside the protected environment.
K
Key Share One participant's portion of an MPC private key. A single key share cannot produce signatures alone — threshold-many shares must cooperate through the MPC protocol.
M
Memo A tag/memo field required by some networks (Cosmos, Stellar, Ripple) to identify the recipient at a shared address. See Memos.
MPC (Multi-Party Computation) A cryptographic technique where multiple parties jointly compute a result (a digital signature) without any party having access to the complete private key. See Architecture & MPC.
N
Non-Custodial A service model where the provider supplies SaaS infrastructure that enables the customer to operate its own custody, rather than performing custody on behalf of the customer. Carabaas cannot unilaterally initiate, approve, or execute transactions.
O
Operator A user authorized to initiate transactions but not to approve them. Enforces maker-checker separation.
orderId
A customer-provided unique identifier for a transaction. Ensures idempotency — submitting the same orderId twice returns the existing transaction.
Organization The top-level entity providing complete isolation between business entities. Each organization has isolated vaults, accounts, permissions, and cosigner infrastructure. See Data Model.
Q
Quorum An M-of-N approval requirement on a vault. N approvers must submit cryptographic signatures before a transaction proceeds to signing. Quorum updates require approval from the current quorum holders. See Key Features — Vault Quorum Policies.
S
Seal / Unseal The lifecycle mechanism that protects the cosigner's cryptographic material. When sealed, the cosigner is inert — no signing operations are possible. 2-of-3 designated unsealers must authenticate to activate. See Seal / Unseal.
Shamir Secret Sharing A scheme for splitting a secret into N shares where any K shares can reconstruct it, but K-1 shares reveal zero information. Used for mnemonic splitting (2-of-3 threshold).
Signing Authority The model where transaction authorization requires participation from customer-controlled signing components operating under customer-defined governance policies.
T
Transaction Authority See Control.
Trustline A network-specific opt-in required before receiving certain tokens on Stellar. See Stellar.
U
Unsealer A designated person authorized to participate in the cosigner unsealing procedure. Distinct from infrastructure operators — Carabaas personnel cannot unseal the cosigner.
V
Vault A security and governance boundary backed by its own MPC key material, access control, and approval policies. Each vault has independent signing permissions and can hold addresses across multiple blockchain networks. See Data Model.
W
Webhook A push notification sent by the platform to your URL when events occur. Three streams: incoming (deposits), outgoing (transaction lifecycle), blockchain (all chain activity). See Webhooks.