Glossary

Shared vocabulary across the Litepaper, reference docs, and Network status.

Protocol & verification

Term	Definition
PoMW (Proof-of-Model-Walk)	Memory-hard 256-step walk over canonical model weights. Mining readiness substrate (planned v0). Not inference TPS.
TOPLOC	Per-request forward-pass attestation (Prime Intellect, 2025). Planned v1 on Malibu buyer traffic.
Receipt (v0.3)	Nine-field Ed25519-signed tuple binding `(prompt, output, model, provider, timestamp)`. Live.
`malibu-verify`	Open-source CLI that verdicts receipts `valid` / `invalid` / `inconclusive`.

Network roles

Term	Definition
Coordinator	Routes requests, maintains billing ledger, resolves receipt pubkeys. Centralized today.
Gateway	Buyer-facing OpenAI-compatible API (`api.malibu.tech/v1`).
Provider	Apple Silicon Mac serving MLX models over outbound WebSocket.
Coordinated inference network	Distributed providers + centralized routing/billing. Not buyer↔provider direct P2P.

Economics

Term	Definition
Credits	Internal billing unit; convert to USDC via `usd_per_million_credits` on rate card.
Gross credits	Buyer-charged credits before provider/operator split.
Provider share (live)	Default 90% of gross credits to provider; 10% operator.
Flywheel split (planned)	70% / 12% / 18% provider / reserves / buy-and-burn at token launch.
BME	Burn-and-mint economics — planned token launch fee routing.

Pool & ops

Term	Definition
Provisional tier	New provider; lower routing weight until promoted.
Pinned tier	Reviewed provider; higher routing priority.
Warm model	Provider has model loaded and advertises ready in pool.
Sticky conversation	`conversation_id` routes repeat turns to same provider for prefix-cache reuse.
Fault breaker	Settlement path that zeros credits on missing/invalid receipts.

Status labels (docs)

Label	Meaning
Live	Running in production today
Beta	Shipped but limited / operator-gated
Planned v0	Token / mining launch milestone
Planned v1	Buyer marketplace / TOPLOC milestone
Prototype	Research code public; not production-integrated

Network status — live vs planned ledger
Security & trust model — trust boundaries
Documentation architecture — docs lane rules (repo)

Benchmarks & methodology Metering & billing