<p>Being that this whole space is still very young, there is a serious lack of standards in many areas, including and especially semantics. Depending on context, validation and verification can have a few meanings:</p>
<p>Typically, when one is talking about a non-technical aspect of the ecosystem, the terms are interchangeable. For example, It'd make sense to say that I can <em>verify</em> that Alice sent ADA to Bob (provided I know their addresses). In this instance, saying &quot;validate&quot; instead of &quot;verify&quot; makes sense and is appropriate. In other words, the terms are interchangeable when we use them to <strong>describe</strong> things.</p>
<p>On the other hand, words are sometimes used as technical concepts that <strong>refer</strong> to very specific things, in which case they are not interchangeable.  For example, a <em>validator script</em> is a technical concept in Cardano's <a href="https://medium.com/@gianmarcoturchiano/whats-so-different-about-cardano-smart-contracts-anyway-5cbf3c95aa4b" rel="nofollow noreferrer">smart contract model</a>; it refers to the part of a smart contract that is executed as on-chain code, used to verify that certain input(s) are valid according the smart contract's intended specification. (Notice how I just used &quot;verify&quot; in a non-technical, dictionary-like manner).</p>
<p>More generally speaking, the term validator is often also used to refer to entities that produce blocks, or participate in on-chain computation (this is non-specific to Cardano). In PoW such entities are often referred to as &quot;miners&quot; and in PoS they are referred to as validators. An SPO such as myself would be considered a validator.</p>
<p>TLDR: strict definitions are hard to come by in emerging and rapidly developing technologies. In this specific case, there is some overlap between interchangeable and non-interchangeable uses of those two words.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-10T20:19:15.263Z
2022-01-10T20:19:15.263Z
zhekson
<p>Is there a strictly defined term for validation and verification or are they interchangeable?</p>
<p>Are validations strictly used for transactions e.g. validate a transaction?</p>
<p>Is verification strictly used for on-chain e.g. verification-key-file ?</p>

<validation><terminology><verification>
terminology validation and verification
# terminology validation and verification

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-01-10)

Is there a strictly defined term for validation and verification or are they interchangeable?

Are validations strictly used for transactions e.g. validate a transaction?

Is verification strictly used for on-chain e.g. verification-key-file ?

**Tags:** validation, terminology, verification

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-01-10. Score: 0 | Accepted answer

Being that this whole space is still very young, there is a serious lack of standards in many areas, including and especially semantics. Depending on context, validation and verification can have a few meanings:

Typically, when one is talking about a non-technical aspect of the ecosystem, the terms are interchangeable. For example, It'd make sense to say that I can *verify* that Alice sent ADA to Bob (provided I know their addresses). In this instance, saying "validate" instead of "verify" makes sense and is appropriate. In other words, the terms are interchangeable when we use them to **describe** things.

On the other hand, words are sometimes used as technical concepts that **refer** to very specific things, in which case they are not interchangeable. For example, a *validator script* is a technical concept in Cardano's [smart contract model](https://medium.com/@gianmarcoturchiano/whats-so-different-about-cardano-smart-contracts-anyway-5cbf3c95aa4b); it refers to the part of a smart contract that is executed as on-chain code, used to verify that certain input(s) are valid according the smart contract's intended specification. (Notice how I just used "verify" in a non-technical, dictionary-like manner).

More generally speaking, the term validator is often also used to refer to entities that produce blocks, or participate in on-chain computation (this is non-specific to Cardano). In PoW such entities are often referred to as "miners" and in PoS they are referred to as validators. An SPO such as myself would be considered a validator.

TLDR: strict definitions are hard to come by in emerging and rapidly developing technologies. In this specific case, there is some overlap between interchangeable and non-interchangeable uses of those two words.


---

