Glossary

A list of key terms used throughout the Digital Transfer Agent (DTA) Technical Standard documentation.

Allowlisting

A security mechanism used throughout the DTA technical standard to grant explicit permission for an action. For example, a Fund Administrator/Transfer Agent must allowlist a Fund Distributor before they can subscribe to a fund. Similarly, DTA Request Settlement allowlists the DTA Request Management to authorize it to initiate minting and burning operations.

Chain Selector

A way for Chainlink CCIP to identify and route transactions to the correct blockchain network. Each blockchain has its own unique identifier, which ensures that cross-chain messages and payments reach the intended destination.

CCIP (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol)

Chainlink's protocol for enabling communication and token transfers between different blockchains. The DTA technical standard uses CCIP for its cross-chain settlement model. Learn more about CCIP in the CCIP documentation.

DTA Request Management

The central, public-facing contract of the DTA technical standard. It acts as a global registry for all actors and funds, and is the primary entry point for all subscription and redemption requests.

DTA Request Settlement

A private, secure wallet contract deployed and owned by a Fund Administrator/Transfer Agent. This contract is the fund's operational treasury, with the exclusive authority to mint and burn the fund's tokens.

Fund Administrator

An entity responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of a fund on the DTA technical standard. Their tasks include listing funds, processing requests, and managing distributor allowlists.

Note: In some jurisdictions, this role is performed by the Transfer Agent or by the same entity acting as Transfer Agent.

Fund Distributor

The entity that makes subscription and redemption requests on behalf of their clients. They are the investors in the DTA technical standard.

Fund Issuer

The entity that legally creates and deploys the fund's underlying token contract. This role is often fulfilled by the same entity acting as the Fund Administrator.

Fund Token

The onchain asset that represents a share in a fund. In the context of the DTA technical standard, this is typically a token contract that supports minting and burning.

Fund Token ID

A unique identifier for a specific fund listed on DTA Request Management. It is generated from the fund's name and is used to distinguish between different funds, especially those that might be managed by the same token contract in the future.

NAV TTL (Net Asset Value Time-to-Live)

A critical fund parameter, set in seconds, that determines the processing model for requests. A value of 0 enables manual processing, where the Fund Administrator must explicitly trigger request processing. A value greater than 0 enables automatic processing, where the system processes a request immediately if the last NAV update is within the TTL window.

Net Asset Value (NAV)

The price per share of a fund. The DTA technical standard uses the NAV at the time of processing to calculate how many shares a distributor receives for their investment amount.

Offchain Settlement

A settlement model where the monetary payment happens through traditional, offchain channels (e.g., a wire transfer). The DTA technical standard coordinates the onchain token transfer, which is finalized after the Fund Administrator manually confirms receipt of the offchain payment.

Onchain Settlement (Local)

A fully automated settlement model where the Payment token, Fund token, and Request Management all reside on the same blockchain. The transfer of payment and minting of shares occur atomically in a single transaction.

Onchain Settlement (Cross-Chain)

A fully automated settlement model that uses Chainlink CCIP to manage a transaction where the payment is made on one chain and the fund shares are minted on another.

Primary Chain

An advanced concept where a Fund Distributor uses a pair of personal proxy contracts to manage all their DTA interactions from their preferred home chain, even if it's different from the DTA Request Management chain.

Redemption Request

The onchain action initiated by a Fund Distributor to sell their fund shares back to the fund in exchange for the underlying settlement currency.

Request Lifecycle

The series of states a subscription or redemption request moves through: Pending → Processing → Processed / Failed / Canceled. Each state represents a specific stage in the workflow.

Subscription Request

The onchain action initiated by a Fund Distributor to invest in a fund by committing a specific amount of settlement currency in exchange for fund shares.

Transfer Agent

An entity responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of a fund on the DTA technical standard. Their tasks include listing funds, processing requests, and managing distributor allowlists.

Note: May be the same entity as the Fund Administrator, depending on jurisdiction.