Glossary

Account — An entity that can hold state and/or execute operations within one interface. Every account has an address and exists natively in exactly one interface.

Account state — The data associated with an account (balance, storage, nonce, etc.), maintained by its native interface.

Address — An identifier for an account within a specific interface.

Alias — An address in a foreign interface that represents a native account from another interface. Aliases are created automatically on first interaction and forward tez received back to the native account.

Blueprint — A signed batch of operations produced by the sequencer, covering all interfaces, published to the Tezos Layer 1 rollup inbox.

EVM runtime — The runtime that implements the EVM interface, processing Ethereum-compatible transactions and executing code using the EVM. Exposes an Ethereum JSON-RPC endpoint.

Externally owned account (EOA) — An account controlled by a private key (as opposed to a smart contract).

Foreign interface — From an account's perspective, any interface other than its native interface.

Gateway contract — A special contract in each interface that acts as the single entry point for cross-interface calls. In the EVM interface, the gateway is a precompile; in the Michelson interface, it is an enshrined KT1 contract.

Michelson runtime — The runtime that implements the Michelson interface, processing Tezos-compatible operations and executing code using the Michelson VM. Exposes a Tezos RPC endpoint.

NAC — Short for native atomic composability. The feature of Tezos X that enables a smart contract in one interface to call a contract in another interface within a single atomic transaction. Individual operations across interfaces are referred to as cross-interface calls.

Native interface — From an account's perspective, the interface where its account state and cryptographic material reside.

Revert isolation — A cross-interface call failure handling strategy where the caller catches the failure and continues, preserving its own state changes.

Revert propagation — A cross-interface call failure handling strategy where the caller also reverts after observing a callee failure.

Runtime — An environment that executes code and maintains account state. Tezos X currently includes the EVM runtime and the Michelson runtime.

Sequencer — The node responsible for ordering operations and producing blueprints. Elected by Tezos Layer 1 bakers.

Smart contract — An account controlled by code rather than a private key.

Tezos X kernel — The orchestration layer (smart rollup kernel) that contains and coordinates all runtimes.

Tezos X block — A block produced by applying a blueprint, representing the combined effects of all runtimes at a given level.