For researchers
Terp Lean is a research product that shrinks validator accounting. Consensus stores a small row per member, proves participation with bits, and hides the proposer until the block commits. The public Terp chain (terpd) is a different product. You run terpz locally. It is not a public Lean network.
This page maps those objects to the Extremely Lean Chain idea: deposit index, effective balance, bitfields, and a hidden proposer. You do not need the original thread to read it.
The objects
A deposit index is who you are in the registry. Consensus stores that index. It does not store a large public key as the row.
Effective balance is voting weight. It is not “how many tokens this account staked.”
A bitfield is a packed set of bits. Each bit is a participant. Attestations merge with OR: once a bit is on, it stays on for that object.
Hidden proposer means the public schedule does not name who will propose. Terp Lean ships that object as SSLE (single secret leader election), implemented as hide-until-block.
When Lean owns the validator set, membership is the bitfield plus each member's effective balance. That set is who may vote.
What Terp Lean binds
JOIN and LEAVE flip membership bits. They travel as subjects on an LNPR (Lean proof record) that the proposer injects. Users cannot put LNPR in the mempool.
Proofs that count are STWO: prover 2, field M31 (curve id 5). Dummy proofs (magic DSTW) always fail. Dummy is not STWO. Proofs are produced off-chain and verified in-process by the app VM. The native module calls that host API. This is not a stored CosmWasm contract sudo.
SSLE hide-until-block: the public schedule is a ticket, not the proposer's address. The committed block reveals the proposer with a STWO SSLE proof. Dummy is not an SSLE proof. Tickets are unique per height. Users cannot put SSLE in the mempool.
A new JOIN enters with small voting power so a silent joiner cannot stall the chain. Consensus continues after JOIN. Rewards can still be withdrawn through the usual distribution path.
| Idea | Terp Lean object |
|---|---|
| Deposit index | Index in the membership row |
| Effective balance | Voting weight per member |
| Participation bitfields | Membership bits JOIN and LEAVE flip |
| Hidden proposer | SSLE ticket until the block; STWO proof on commit. Shipped. |
That mapping is smaller than a full period balance-walk over a million validators. It does not re-key the whole registry every day. Consensus rounds still follow the existing engine.
Start at Bitfield, Membership, Fold, and SSLE. Resources cites the Extremely Lean Chain thread if you want the source idea.