Glossary

For the testnet market mechanism, see the Swap Terms addendum.

Terms used in these documents. Follow the relevant protocol and risk pages for conditions and exceptions.

Autocall

Early termination of a series when the observed price is at or above autocallBps of s0 at an intermediate observation. COUPON receives principal plus that coupon; SHIELD receives stock and unused prefund.

Autocallable note

A structured note paying periodic contingent coupons that terminates early if the underlying is above a trigger on an observation date, with contingent coupons and a stock-settlement risk below the barrier at maturity. Contract and issuer risks apply throughout.

Barrier

barrierBps of s0 (60% to 88% in the standing templates, by underlying). Coupons are paid only when the price is at or above it; at maturity, a price below it triggers physical settlement.

Basis point (bps)

One hundredth of one percent. 10,000 bps = 100%.

Bond (BondDepository)

Purchase of vesting NOTE at a formula price with USDG, Stock Tokens or COUPON legs; proceeds go to the Treasury.

Buyback auction

The RevenueRouter's fee-funded auction buying NOTE with 90% of fees, never below the Treasury floor.

COUPON

Leg 0. The note buyer: deposits USDG, receives coupons while the barrier holds, receives principal at autocall or maturity, or stock at s0 if breached.

Coupon discovery

Setting couponBps = clamp(floor, cap, refBps × S / D) at strike from the SHIELD-to-COUPON demand ratio.

Coupon index

Cumulative net coupon per COUPON unit (WAD), used for pull-based accrual.

Deferred

An observation whose oracle read failed; retried permissionlessly; governance fallback after 72 h.

Desk

ERC-4626 USDG vault that fills undersubscribed COUPON sides within caps, only through DeskPolicy.

DeskPolicy

Published per-underlying rules under which anyone may trigger a bountied Desk fill inside the last fillLead of Subscription; sizes fills to the Desk's coupon hurdle.

Escrow invariant

The identity quoteEscrow == N_c + prefundRemaining + claimableQuote + refundableQuote + accruedFees (and the stock analogue).

Floor (Treasury)

reserveValueQuote / circulatingSupply; the redemption value per NOTE before haircut.

Following Business Day

An observation on a newly registered holiday can move to the next official close within eight days, but only before the next scheduled observation day; otherwise it defers at the scheduled timestamp.

Gauge

A staking contract that receives a share of weekly NOTE emissions in proportion to veNOTE votes; series gauges also steer Desk per-underlying caps.

Governance

The 48-hour governance that owns every module and executes NoteGovernor decisions after the delay. The 7-day upgrade governance is the only address that can upgrade a UUPS proxy.

Guardian

Role that can pause but not unpause or move funds.

Keeper

Anyone who calls permissionless cranks (finalizeStrike, observe) for a reward.

Knock-in

The barrier being breached at maturity, converting COUPON's principal into stock.

Leg

One side of a series: COUPON (0) or SHIELD (1). ERC-1155 id (seriesId << 1) | leg.

MarketCalendar

Contract defining official US equity close timestamps, including DST, holidays and early closes.

Matched notional (N)

min(D, S, notionalCap, prefundCapacity); the size of the series.

Maturity

The last observation. Barrier holds: cash settlement. Barrier fails: physical settlement.

NOTE

Governance and reserve token, hard cap 100,000,000, epoch-capped minting.

Notional fee

The series' notionalFeeBps applied to matched notional, debited from SHIELD's prefund at strike and rounded up. illustrative The worked example assumes 0.75%.

Observation

A scheduled official close at which the price is read and the series rules applied.

Official close

16:00 New York (20:00 or 21:00 UTC), or a registered early close, on a trading day.

OracleAdapter

Contract that reads the price for an official close from a Chainlink-style feed with windows, backup and deferral.

Physical settlement

Delivery of Stock Tokens to COUPON holders instead of USDG when the barrier is breached at maturity, using the recorded strike price, quote rate and integer rounding.

Prefund

USDG SHIELD escrows at deposit to cover all possible coupons at the cap plus the notional fee.

Quote

The settlement currency, USDG.

Recovery Unwind

Governance-only exit for a paused series that cannot progress: after a 48-hour notice it freezes entitlements at the recorded escrow and lets holders withdraw them.

Reference price

referencePrice(feed) (latestPrice is its price component): the latest print while the market is open, the last official close while it is shut. Used for prefund sizing and bookkeeping during Subscription, never for settlement.

Reserved deposit

A COUPON deposit posted by the Desk through NoteCore.depositCouponReserved with a coupon hurdle (minCouponBps). At strike the core matches it only as far as the discovered coupon stays at or above the hurdle; the excluded part is refunded to the Desk (ReserveExcluded). Ordinary deposits are never excluded.

RevenueRouter

Fee sink that splits fees 90/10 between buyback and Treasury.

s0

The strike price, read at observations[0], 1e8 scaled.

Security Council

The guardian governance: can pause, cancel queued governance operations, cancel an unwind and revoke a forced observation. Cannot execute anything.

Series

One note on one underlying with one observation schedule.

SHIELD

Leg 1. The protection buyer: deposits Stock Tokens and prefund, pays coupons, receives one raw USDG unit per raw leg unit if breached, plus unused prefund. One USDG is 1,000,000 raw units.

sNOTE

ERC-4626 staking vault receiving buyback NOTE via 7-day streaming, with a withdrawal cooldown.

Stock Token

Robinhood Chain ERC-20 tracking a US equity, issued with transfer restrictions and a uiMultiplier.

Strike

finalizeStrike: reading s0, matching, coupon discovery, going Live.

Subscription

The period before strike during which deposits are accepted.

Treasury

Reserve contract holding USDG, Stock Tokens, COUPON legs; provides the floor.

uiMultiplier

Issuer-side scaling factor for Stock Token display balances (ERC-8056); already applied in feeds; not used by the protocol.

Unwound

Terminal series status after a governance Recovery Unwind; holders pull frozen entitlements with withdrawUnwound.

UpgradeGovernor

The stricter governor (quorum 8%, 7-day vote) that controls the 7-day upgrade governance.

Utilisation (Desk)

deployed / totalAssets; drives the bond discount.

veNOTE

Vote-escrowed NOTE. Locking NOTE for up to four years gives voting weight that decays linearly to zero at unlock.

WAD

Fixed-point with 18 decimals.

Swap Terms

Terms for the Swap testnet mechanism, distinct from the note instruments above.

Swap

The standalone automated market for tokenised stocks and ETFs against USDG on Robinhood Chain.

State Book

The algebraic pricing function and its implied depth, driven by the reference and inventory displacement. Not resting orders or a reserve-ratio pool. See The State Book.

Reference Print

An accepted verified price for a particular market, phase, timestamp and token basis. Verification does not establish that it is the newest possible report.

Reference Confidence

The engine's age-sensitive confidence in the accepted print. As it falls, quotes widen and supported depth contracts.

Inventory Displacement

The bounded price adjustment for the engine's stock shortfall or surplus relative to its senior obligation. Zero at flat inventory.

Half-Spread

The side-specific spread around the displaced reference, including applicable reference width, venue, uncertainty and staleness or closure terms.

Regular Stock Inventory

Senior stock inventory available only with a qualifying fresh reference and recalled before the scheduled close. It cannot be assigned a closure loss.

Continuous Stock Inventory

Senior stock inventory also eligible for Discovery, subject to closed-hours exposure and opening reconciliation.

Senior USDG Vault

USDG inventory funding stock purchases, with a senior claim in USDG, available exits subject to free inventory and a queue. Distinct from junior risk capital.

Backstop

Junior USDG capital with variable net asset value, absorbing inventory losses alongside the Engine Reserve. Exits require notice, valuation and available risk headroom.

Engine Reserve

Retained venue profit permanently committed to the engine. It ranks alongside the Backstop and is not redeemable by depositors or withdrawable to the treasury.

Coverage

The ratio of stressed recoverable assets to the relevant senior obligation. The floor constrains risk increases; an adverse print can still cause a breach. See Coverage Rules.

Cold, Anchored, Discovery and Safety

The four engine regimes, respectively restricted inventory access, qualifying fresh-reference quoting, lower-confidence discovery and risk-reducing safety operation. See Regimes and Sessions.

Re-Anchoring and Opening

Transitions that re-establish a discovery centre or reconcile carried exposure at a returning qualifying reference. They are not assurances of an ordinary swap fill.

Funded Withdrawal

A queued exit for which assets have been reserved. Claiming transfers those assets and does not constitute a second withdrawal of active inventory. See Exits and Queues.