As the 1.0 Launch, and final milestone of the original Streamr Network roadmap approaches, we would like to use the opportunity to clarify the related terminology.
In particular, there has been confusion surrounding the term ‘Broker,’ which has been overloaded (Broker person, Broker node), as well as the ‘miner/mining’ semantics, which inaccurately the work done in the Streamr Network (data distribution) to the completely different work (burning energy) of PoW blockchains. Let’s get into it!
The main changes are:
- First of all, the Tatum milestone will be called Streamr 1.0. It’s the final milestone of the initial Streamr crowdfunding roadmap and the name signals the fact that the technology is becoming feature complete and production ready.
- Brokers will be renamed to Operators. Operators operate Streamr nodes and stake on Sponsorships via their Operator contract.
- Bounties will be renamed to Sponsorships. Sponsorships pay out tokens over time to staked Operator Contracts.
A few technical resources will also get new, clearer names:
- Broker nodes will just be called Streamr nodes.
- The Streamr client (a.k.a. Light node) will be referred to as Streamr SDK.
Additionally, a few new terms to be aware of:
- The Operator Contract is an Operator’s on-chain vehicle, wrapping the staking and delegation functionality among other things. For example, it allows Delegators to delegate to Operators and share revenue.
- The Operator plugin is a Streamr node plugin that does work on behalf of Operators to secure streams based on which Sponsorships the Operator stakes on. In the Brubeck network, the plugin for participating in the network incentives was called the ‘mining’ plugin.
We’ll be updating these terms in the developer docs, website, and other material that is actively in use. There may be some initial crossover, so please bear with us while they are updated (and we get used to remembering the new terms!). Please let us know if anything is unclear.
Thank you for reading and see you on Discord!
