Glossary

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A

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Agent

A professional dispute resolver who reviews cases and decides how to split escrowed funds. Agents stake funds to participate and earn fees for resolutions.

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Assignment Fee

An optional upfront fee charged by an agent when they are selected for an escrow.

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B

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BPS (Basis Points)

A unit for measuring percentages. 100 bps = 1%. Used for fee calculations.

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Buyer

The party who creates and funds the escrow. Typically the one paying for goods or services.

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Buyer Protection Time

The period after a seller marks as fulfilled during which the buyer can review before the seller can claim funds.

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D

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DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)

The community governance structure that owns and controls Zenland. Token holders vote on proposals.

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Dispute

A formal disagreement raised by the buyer, indicating an issue with the delivery.

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Dispute Fee

A fee charged by an agent only when they resolve a dispute.

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E

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EIP-1167 (Minimal Proxy)

A standard for deploying lightweight clone contracts. Zenland uses this for gas-efficient escrow creation.

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Escrow

A smart contract that holds funds until both parties agree on the outcome.

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ERC-4337 (Account Abstraction)

A standard for smart contract wallets. Powers NYKNYC’s gasless transactions.

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F

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Factory (EscrowFactory)

The main contract that creates new escrow instances. All escrows are deployed through the factory.

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Fulfilled

An escrow state indicating the seller has marked the work as complete.

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G

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Gas

The fee paid to Ethereum validators to process transactions.

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L

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Locked Escrow

An escrow created without an agent. Only mutual agreement (or seller refund) can move funds. Based on Satoshi’s 2-of-2 escrow design.

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M

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MAV (Maximum Arbitratable Value)

The maximum escrow value an agent can handle, based on their stake. Calculated as stake × multiplier.

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Minimal Proxy

See EIP-1167.

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N

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NYKNYC

Zenland’s recommended smart wallet. “Not Your Keys, Not Your… Crypto?” Uses account abstraction for gasless transactions.

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P

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Pending

An escrow state where the seller hasn’t yet accepted the terms.

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Permit (EIP-2612)

A gasless token approval standard. Allows approving + transferring in one transaction.

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Protocol Fee

The 1% fee charged by Zenland on escrow creation.

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R

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Release

The action of sending escrowed funds to the seller, typically when the buyer is satisfied.

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Refund

Returning escrowed funds to the buyer. Sellers can do this unilaterally anytime.

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S

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Seller

The party receiving payment in exchange for goods or services.

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Split

A mutual agreement to divide escrowed funds between buyer and seller, often used to settle disputes.

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Stake

Funds locked by agents as collateral. Determines their MAV and provides economic security.

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T

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Terminal State

A final escrow state (Released, Refunded, Split, Agent Resolved) from which no further actions are possible.

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Timelock

A smart contract that delays execution of DAO proposals, giving the community time to react.

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Treasury

The DAO-controlled wallet that receives protocol fees.

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W

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WAD

An 18-decimal fixed-point number format used for internal calculations. Normalizes tokens with different decimals.

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Whitelist

The list of tokens approved by the DAO for use in escrows. Currently USDC and USDT.