Resources
Glossary
Every term used across the Cowl docs, defined once. Technical terms are exact — this is the canonical spelling.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ZK proof | A zero-knowledge proof — proves a statement is true (a note is yours and valid) without revealing the underlying data. |
| Shielded pool | The ZK core where assets live as private notes. The public ledger sees only commitments. |
| Shielded portfolio | Your balances, positions, and cost basis while held in shielded state — readable by your keys, invisible on-chain. |
| Note | A UTXO-like record encoding an amount and owner. Your shielded balance is a set of notes. |
| Commitment | A hash of a note stored on-chain. Proves a note exists without revealing it. |
| Nullifier | A value published when spending a note; marks it spent and prevents double-spends without linking to the owner. |
| Stealth address | A one-time receiving address only you can spend from. Deposits land unlinkable to you. |
| Viewing key | A private key that lets you scan for and read your own notes. Cannot spend. |
| View key | A read-only credential you hand a third party for scoped, selective disclosure. Cannot spend. |
| Selective disclosure | Revealing a scoped slice of your activity (by time, asset, or flow) to a specific party — and nothing else. |
| Private transfer | Moving value between shielded accounts without exposing amounts, sender, or receiver. |
| Shield / unshield | Moving assets into (shield) or out of (unshield) shielded state — the public/shielded boundary. |
| MEV | Maximal extractable value — profit bots capture by reordering or inserting transactions, e.g. sandwiching your trade. |
| Front-run | Placing a trade ahead of your visible pending order to profit from the price move it will cause. |
| Copy-trade | Mirroring a visible address's entries to ride its edge. Defeated when entries are shielded. |
| Gasless relayer | A service that pays gas and broadcasts your shielded transaction so no funding wallet links back to you. |
| Compliance screening | Checks applied to funds at the boundary so tainted value never enters the pool. |
| Tokenized stock | An equity represented as an on-chain token (e.g. AAPLx) that trades and settles natively on Robinhood Chain. |
| USDG | The stable settlement asset for trades on Robinhood Chain — private in, private out, pegged throughout. |
| Robinhood Chain | The Arbitrum-based L2 Cowl settles on, where tokenized stocks natively live. |
| $COWL | The protocol token — staking, fee discounts, governance, and buyback & burn. |
| Buyback & burn | Using protocol fees to buy $COWL on the market and permanently remove it from supply. |