Quick reference for Cyberspace Protocol terminology - Cantor pairing, Gibsons, Hyperspace, and more
Glossary
Quick reference for technical terms, concepts, and notation used throughout Cyberspace Protocol documentation
A
Action Event
A Nostr event (kind 3333) that represents a movement action in Cyberspace.
Differentiated by the A tag: spawn,
hop, sidestep,
enter-hyperspace, or hyperjump.
Avatar
Deprecated terminology. The protocol uses keypair or identity instead. Cyberspace has no user representations or character systems — only cryptographic identities with spatial locations.
B
Block Anchor Event
A Nostr event (kind 321) that represents a Bitcoin block for discovery convenience.
Contains the Merkle root and block height, allowing identities to find Hyperjumps without scanning the Bitcoin blockchain directly.
C
Cantor Pairing
A mathematical function that combines two natural numbers into a unique natural number.
Cyberspace uses Cantor pairing to build traversal proofs — the mathematical "fabric" between coordinates.
Formula: π(x, y) = (x + y)(x + y + 1) / 2 + y
Cantor Tree
A Merkle tree built from Cantor pairings instead of hash functions. Each leaf is a coordinate or temporal seed, and each parent node is the Cantor pair of its children. The root is the traversal proof.
Chalk-on-Sidewalk
A metaphor for location-gated access without keys or infrastructure. Like a message written in chalk: anyone who walks by can read it, but you cannot read it without walking there. In Cyberspace: content encrypted at a coordinate can only be decrypted by proving presence at that location.
Coordinate (256-bit)
A position in Cyberspace, represented as 256 bits with interleaved structure:
X₀Y₀Z₀X₁Y₁Z₁...P
(85 bits per axis + 1 plane bit). Notation: (x, y, z, plane=P)
D
Dataspace
The plane where plane bit = 0.
Coordinates in dataspace map to real-world GPS via the Dataspace plane, covering Earth and extending to geosynchronous orbit and beyond.
DECK (Design Extension and Compatibility Kit)
Extension documents that define optional features beyond the core protocol. Example: DECK-0001 defines Hyperspace (Bitcoin block teleports).
E
Enter-Hyperspace
An action (kind 3333, A=enter-hyperspace)
that boards the Hyperspace network from Cyberspace. Requires reaching a sector entry plane (1 sector thick)
of a Hyperjump. Entry cost: LCA h≈33, ~15 minutes, ~$0.09 cloud compute.
G
Gibson
The smallest unit of distance in Cyberspace. Changing one coordinate by 1 step along an axis = 1 Gibson. Named after William Gibson, author of Neuromancer (1984), who coined the term "cyberspace."
H
Hop
Local movement within a sector (kind 3333, A=hop).
Proved with a Cantor pairing tree. Cost scales with LCA height of the path — nearby hops are milliseconds,
cross-sector hops can be minutes to hours.
Hyperjump
(noun) A coordinate in Cyberspace derived from a Bitcoin block's Merkle root.
Each Bitcoin block is a Hyperjump object — a thermodynamically "paid for" location.
(verb) The action of traveling between Hyperjumps within Hyperspace
(kind 3333, A=hyperjump).
Hyperspace
A 1-dimensional path through Cyberspace formed by Bitcoin block Merkle roots in block height order. Hyperspace is the transit network; Hyperjumps are the locations (stations) on that network. Think of it as a subway system: you enter at a station, travel the line, exit at your destination.
Hyperspace Proof
A Cantor tree with a temporal seed leaf, proving traversal through the block-height path between Hyperjumps.
Leaves: [temporal_seed, B_from, B_from+1, ..., B_to].
Temporal seed prevents replay attacks (bound to chain position).
I
Ideaspace
The plane where plane bit = 1.
Coordinates in ideaspace are purely abstract — no physical GPS mapping.
Used for conceptual spaces, communities, or applications unrelated to physical location.
Identity
A cryptographic keypair (Nostr public/private key) that has a persistent location in Cyberspace. Your identity's spawn coordinate is derived from your pubkey — you discover it, you don't choose it.
K
Keypair
The cryptographic identity used in Cyberspace — a Nostr public/private key pair. The pubkey determines your spawn coordinate; the private key signs your movement proofs.
Kind 3333
The Nostr event kind for all Cyberspace movement actions.
Differentiated by the A tag:
spawn, hop, sidestep, enter-hyperspace, hyperjump.
Kind 33330
The Nostr event kind for location-encrypted content. Content is encrypted with a key bound to a specific coordinate; only identities proving presence can decrypt.
L
LCA (Lowest Common Ancestor)
In the context of a Cantor tree, the LCA height is the depth of the tree — a measure of computational work required. Higher LCA = more pairings = more expensive proof. Natural LCA barriers form boundaries in Cyberspace.
Locality
The property of having spatial relationships — distance, boundaries, traversal time. Cyberspace imposes real locality on digital systems through proof-of-work mathematics, unlike flat digital systems where hyperlinks enable instant "teleportation."
M
Merkle Root
The root hash of a Bitcoin block's transaction Merkle tree. In Cyberspace, Merkle roots are used as Hyperjump coordinates — thermodynamically "paid for" by Bitcoin's proof-of-work.
N
Nostr
Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays — a decentralized protocol for cryptographically signed events. Cyberspace uses Nostr to propagate movement proofs (kind 3333) and encrypted content (kind 33330). Nostr provides identity and propagation; Cyberspace adds where, distance, and locality.
P
Plane Bit
The least-significant bit of a 256-bit coordinate, indicating which plane:
0 = dataspace (GPS-mapped) or
1 = ideaspace (abstract).
Notation: (x, y, z, plane=P)
Proof-of-Work
Computational work required to traverse Cyberspace. Unlike arbitrary hash grinding (Bitcoin), Cyberspace PoW is structured — it encodes the actual path traveled via Cantor pairing trees. This is the difference between digging a hole and following a path.
S
Sector
A 55-bit subdivision of an 85-bit axis. Each axis has 2⁵⁵ sectors, each containing 2³⁰ Gibsons (1 sector thick). Sector entry planes enable Hyperspace access: match any one of 3 sectors (X, Y, or Z) to enter.
Sector Entry Plane
A volume of Cyberspace occupying every Gibson sharing the same sector along a single axis as a Hyperjump.
Three planes per Hyperjump (X-plane, Y-plane, Z-plane), each 1 sector thick.
Identities use enter-hyperspace action when inside this volume.
Sidestep
An action (kind 3333, A=sidestep)
that crosses an infeasible LCA boundary (h>35-40) via Merkle proof.
Used for sector transitions when Cantor proof would be computationally infeasible.
Spawn
The initial entry action to Cyberspace (kind 3333, A=spawn).
Your spawn coordinate is derived from your Nostr pubkey — you discover it, you don't choose it.
T
Temporal Seed
A value computed from the previous event ID, used as the first leaf in a Hyperspace proof Cantor tree.
Prevents proof reuse by binding the proof to a specific chain position.
Formula: temporal_seed = previous_event_id % 2²⁵⁶
Thermodynamic Protocol
A protocol where actions require irreversible energy expenditure. Cyberspace is thermodynamic: movement costs energy paid to the universe through computation, not to an administrator through fees.
W
Work Equivalence
A key property of Cyberspace: computing a region's preimage costs the same whether you traveled there via movement chain or computed it directly. You cannot know what is somewhere without doing the work. This is the difference between digging a hole and following a path.