| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Smart contract wallet | A wallet deployed as a smart contract on a public blockchain. It lives onchain — not inside Crossmint’s servers — and its behavior is governed by auditable code. On EVM chains, Crossmint wallets implement ERC-4337 with ERC-7579 modular extensions. See Architecture. |
| Signer | A cryptographic identity authorized to approve actions on a wallet. Signers are separate from the wallet itself and can be added, removed, or rotated without changing the wallet’s address. See Wallet Signers. |
| Operational signer | A signer added to a wallet for day-to-day transaction authorization. Operational signers are registered by the recovery signer and can be scoped with specific permissions. Examples: a device key for user wallets, a server key for company wallets. See Wallet Signers. |
| Delegated signer | The previous term for operational signer. Still used in current SDK method names (addDelegatedSigner, delegatedSigners) but being renamed in the next breaking release. |
| Recovery signer | A signer used to regain access to a wallet when the operational signer is lost — for example, when a user gets a new phone. Recovery signers authorize the enrollment of a new operational signer without changing the wallet address. See Wallet Signers. |
| Admin signer | The previous term for recovery signer. You may still encounter this term in older SDK versions and API responses. |
| Custody | An entity has custody of a wallet if it can unilaterally execute transactions on the wallet or unilaterally block transactions on the wallet. See Custody Modalities for full details. |
| Non-custodial | A wallet configuration where your company cannot unilaterally move or block funds. Users control their own signers. See Custody Modalities. |
| Wallet locator | A human-readable identifier for a wallet, following the format email:user@example.com:evm or userId:abc123:solana. Used in API calls instead of raw wallet addresses. |
| Signer locator | A human-readable identifier for a signer, such as external-wallet:0x1234... or email:user@example.com. Used when registering or referencing signers in API calls. |
| TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) | A hardware-attested secure enclave (e.g., Intel TDX) where sensitive cryptographic operations occur. Crossmint uses TEEs for email and SMS recovery signers — master secrets are derived inside the TEE and never exposed to Crossmint or the host application. |
| Onchain | Deployed to or enforced by the blockchain. In Crossmint wallets, signer permissions and wallet logic are onchain and publicly auditable. |
Introduction
Glossary
Key terms and definitions used across the Crossmint documentation.
A reference of key terms used throughout the Crossmint documentation. If you encounter an unfamiliar term in any guide or concept page, check here first.