Glossary (v4)

Updated: 22 Sep 2025 (AEST) - Concise reference for terms used across GuardiansofEarth.io, Spirits of the Realms, and the Nature Market. Entries are alphabetical. Cross‑references appear in italics.

A

  • Activation (Realm Activation): The process of assigning an owner/administrator to a Nature Realm and enabling governance controls, content moderation, and treasury management. See also: Nature Realm, Realm Owner/Administrator, Realm Treasury.

  • Amplify / Soften (Song action): Two effects available when using Song Tokens on a Story. Amplify increases a Story’s influence on the BioScore; Soften reduces it. Influence scales with a user’s Realm Shareholding.

B

  • Baseline / Comparison Areas: Reference areas (e.g., 5× and 12.5× the Realm’s footprint) used to contextualize a Realm’s ecological measures. See also: BioScore.

  • BCU (BioCultural Unit): The core value unit representing proof of biocultural connection and contribution within and across Realms. BCUs can be harvested, purchased, and staked. Total supply is capped.

  • BCU Market: The venue where BCUs can be bought and sold (subject to vesting/eligibility rules). Includes price display, order placement, and—when enabled—secondary liquidity. See also: Vesting Period, Staking.

  • BioScore: A composite score reflecting a Realm’s biocultural health. Built from multiple components (e.g., Species, Monitoring, Data Quality, Community, Stories) and contextualized by Baseline/Comparison Areas.

  • BioValue (Expert‑Valued): A weighting/validation mechanism informed by expert review to emphasize ecologically significant contributions. See also: Verifiers.

  • Buyer (BCU Buyer): A participant who acquires BCUs (e.g., for impact portfolios, staking, or support of specific Realms). See also: Staking, Vesting Period.

C

  • Community Score: BioScore component capturing people’s engagement, participation, and stewardship behaviors within a Realm. See also: BioScore.

  • Comparison Areas: See: Baseline / Comparison Areas.

  • Confidential/Sensitive Locations: Handling rules for threatened species or vulnerable sites (e.g., coordinate obfuscation or delayed display). See also: Privacy & Data Ownership.

D

  • Data Ingestion (Supported Apps): The pipelines that import observations/records from partner apps into Realms, typically on a schedule. Includes licensing and data‑quality checks. See also: Deduplication, Privacy & Data Ownership.

  • Data Quality Score: BioScore component reflecting identification confidence, photo quality, taxon level, media/metadata completeness, and biocultural health indicators. See also: BioScore, Verifiers.

  • Deduplication: Processes for avoiding double‑counting when identical or mirrored observations arrive from multiple sources. See also: Data Ingestion.

E

  • Emission / Scarcity Curve (BCU): The difficulty schedule that governs how hard it is to harvest additional BCUs over time as supply grows. See also: Harvesting, Staking.

F

  • Field Apps (Supported Apps): Third‑party biodiversity and knowledge apps whose submissions can increase a Realm’s BioScore after ingestion. See also: Data Ingestion.

G

  • Global BioQuest: Twice‑yearly competition (April & October) where Realms and participants aim to raise BioScores through observations, stories/songs, and learning activity. See also: Nature Realm, Stories, Song Tokens.

  • Governance (Realm): The roles, permissions, and processes used to manage a Realm’s content, privacy, and treasury. See also: Realm Owner/Administrator, Realm Shareholding, Moderation.

H

  • Harvester (BCU Harvester): A participant who increases a Realm’s BioScore (e.g., via observations or stories) and receives BCUs according to the current difficulty and rules. See also: BCU, Emission/Scarcity Curve.

  • Harvesting (BCU): The act of earning BCUs by contributing qualifying ecological and cultural value to a Realm.

I

  • Identification (Oracle of Life): A guided ID/learning process that helps users identify species and contributes to engagement/education metrics. See also: Community Score.

  • Integration (Realm Integrations): Connections a Realm can enable—apps, maps, and market features. See also:Data Ingestion, API.

L

  • Leaderboards: Rankings (global or per‑event) showcasing top Realms or contributors. See also: Global BioQuest.

  • Levels (Realm Levels): Progress tiers for Realms tied to activity and stewardship; higher levels typically unlock more opportunities. See also: Song Tokens, Governance.

M

  • Market (Nature Market): The broader marketplace including buy/sell order books for BCUs, staking interfaces, and Realm pages with treasury visibility. See also: BCU Market, Realm Treasury.

  • Moderation (Stories/Content): Review powers available to Realm admins (and potentially verified curators) to remove harmful/low‑quality content and enforce policy. See also: Governance, Privacy & Data Ownership.

  • Monitoring Score: BioScore component reflecting temporal coverage, sampling consistency, and observation effort within the Realm. See also: BioScore.

N

  • Nature Realm (Realm): A geofenced place on GuardiansofEarth.io with its own page, community, data integrations, governance, treasury, and BioScore. Examples include campuses, parks, eco‑resorts, cultural sites, backyards and more.

O

  • On‑chain / Off‑chain Status: Whether BCUs and actions are represented on a public blockchain or currently recorded in platform ledgers, with a roadmap toward tokenization where applicable. See also: Privacy & Data Ownership, BCU Market.

  • Oracle of Life: See: Identification (Oracle of Life) - the BioExpertise system at BioExpertise.org

P

  • Polygon Query: Spatial query by a Realm polygon (or custom area) used for analytics, ingestion filtering, and API access. See also: API, Data Ingestion.

  • Privacy & Data Ownership: Policy stance: creators retain rights to their contributions; Realms also hold rights relevant to stewardship. Includes data minimization, child safety, and sensitive‑location handling.

  • Project Treasury (Realm Treasury Share): Portion of harvested BCUs or proceeds reserved for restoration and community projects within a Realm. See also: Realm Treasury, Governance.

  • Propagation (Stories): The act of sharing a Story across related contexts/Realms; may require Realm Shareholding and respects anti‑collusion rules. See also: Song Tokens.

R

  • Realm Owner / Administrator: The person or organization with permissions to manage a Realm: settings, privacy, moderation, integrations, and treasury approvals.

  • Realm Page: The public web/app page for a Realm, showing maps, BioScore, stories/songs, activity, and treasury status.

  • Realm Shareholding: A member’s stake in a specific Realm used to weight Song influence and potentially unlock actions (e.g., propagation). See also: Song Tokens.

  • Realm Treasury: BCUs allocated/earned at the Realm level, intended for restoration or community initiatives, governed by Realm owners/admins per policy. See also: Project Treasury, Governance.

S

  • Scarcity Curve: See: Emission / Scarcity Curve (BCU).

  • Sensitive Locations: See: Confidential/Sensitive Locations.

  • Song (Song Token): A lightweight governance signal that can Amplify or Soften a Story’s impact on a Realm’s BioScore. New users receive a starter allocation; additional Songs may accrue with Realm Level or Shareholding. Anti‑collusion rules apply. See also: Stories, Realm Shareholding.

  • Species Score: BioScore component measuring richness and presence of native/indicator species within a Realm over time. See also: BioScore.

  • Spirits of the Realms (Game): GoE’s mobile game that blends exploration, learning, and card‑based play; certain in‑game actions align with Realm engagement and events. See also: Global BioQuest.

  • Staking (BCUs): Locking BCUs on a Realm to earn rewards from a Staking Rewards Pool based on Realm performance and rules. See also: Vesting Period, BCU Market.

  • Staking Rewards Pool: A fixed allocation of BCUs distributed to stakers per the platform’s reward schedule. See also: Staking.

  • Stories (Realm Stories): Place‑based knowledge contributions (originals or links) that inform cultural understanding and may influence the BioScore via Songs. See also: Song Tokens, Propagation.

T

  • Treasury (Realm / Project): See: Realm Treasury, Project Treasury.

V

  • Verifier: A participant or program that reviews data quality and ecological significance (e.g., expert validation) to strengthen BioScore integrity. See also: Data Quality Score, BioValue.

  • Vesting Period: The minimum holding period before purchased BCUs, or BCUs earned via staking, can be sold or transferred, designed to align incentives and reduce short‑term speculation. See also: BCU Market, Staking.

W

  • Whole Earth Page: The global view aggregating activity, stories, events, and highlights across all Realms.

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