Changed 'federation' to 'cluster' or 'consortium' in docs and some code

docs/root/source/assets.rst

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ How BigchainDB is Good for Asset Registrations & Transfers
 
 BigchainDB can store data of any kind (within reason), but it's designed to be particularly good for storing asset registrations and transfers:
 
-* The fundamental thing that one submits to a BigchainDB federation to be checked and stored (if valid) is a *transaction*, and there are two kinds: CREATE transactions and TRANSFER transactions.
+* The fundamental thing that one sends to a BigchainDB cluster, to be checked and stored (if valid), is a *transaction*, and there are two kinds: CREATE transactions and TRANSFER transactions.
 * A CREATE transaction can be use to register any kind of asset (divisible or indivisible), along with arbitrary metadata.
 * An asset can have zero, one, or several owners.
 * The owners of an asset can specify (crypto-)conditions which must be satisified by anyone wishing transfer the asset to new owners. For example, a condition might be that at least 3 of the 5 current owners must cryptographically sign a transfer transaction.

docs/root/source/decentralized.md

@@ -4,18 +4,18 @@ Decentralization means that no one owns or controls everything, and there is no
 
 Ideally, each node in a BigchainDB cluster is owned and controlled by a different person or organization. Even if the cluster lives within one organization, it's still preferable to have each node controlled by a different person or subdivision.
 
-We use the phrase "BigchainDB federation" (or just "federation") to refer to the set of people and/or organizations who run the nodes of a BigchainDB cluster. A federation requires some form of governance to make decisions such as membership and policies. The exact details of the governance process are determined by each federation, but it can be very decentralized (e.g. purely vote-based, where each node gets a vote, and there are no special leadership roles).
+We use the phrase "BigchainDB consortium" (or just "consortium") to refer to the set of people and/or organizations who run the nodes of a BigchainDB cluster. A consortium requires some form of governance to make decisions such as membership and policies. The exact details of the governance process are determined by each consortium, but it can be very decentralized (e.g. purely vote-based, where each node gets a vote, and there are no special leadership roles).
 
-The actual data is decentralized in that it doesn’t all get stored in one place. Each federation node stores the primary of one shard and replicas of some other shards. (A shard is a subset of the total set of documents.) Sharding and replication are handled by RethinkDB.
+If sharding is turned on (i.e. if the number of shards is larger than one), then the actual data is decentralized in that no one node stores all the data.
 
-Every node has its own locally-stored list of the public keys of other federation members: the so-called keyring. There's no centrally-stored or centrally-shared keyring.
+Every node has its own locally-stored list of the public keys of other consortium members: the so-called keyring. There's no centrally-stored or centrally-shared keyring.
 
-A federation can increase its decentralization (and its resilience) by increasing its jurisdictional diversity, geographic diversity, and other kinds of diversity. This idea is expanded upon in [the section on node diversity](diversity.html).
+A consortium can increase its decentralization (and its resilience) by increasing its jurisdictional diversity, geographic diversity, and other kinds of diversity. This idea is expanded upon in [the section on node diversity](diversity.html).
 
-There’s no node that has a long-term special position in the federation. All nodes run the same software and perform the same duties.
+There’s no node that has a long-term special position in the cluster. All nodes run the same software and perform the same duties.
 
-RethinkDB has an “admin” user which can’t be deleted and which can make big changes to the database, such as dropping a table. Right now, that’s a big security vulnerability, but we have plans to mitigate it by:
+RethinkDB and MongoDB have an “admin” user which can’t be deleted and which can make big changes to the database, such as dropping a table. Right now, that’s a big security vulnerability, but we have plans to mitigate it by:
 1. Locking down the admin user as much as possible.
-2. Having all nodes inspect RethinkDB admin-type requests before acting on them. Requests can be checked against an evolving whitelist of allowed actions (voted on by federation nodes).
+2. Having all nodes inspect admin-type requests before acting on them. Requests can be checked against an evolving whitelist of allowed actions. Nodes requesing non-allowed requests can be removed from the list of cluster nodes.
 
 It’s worth noting that the RethinkDB admin user can’t transfer assets, even today. The only way to create a valid transfer transaction is to fulfill the current (crypto) conditions on the asset, and the admin user can’t do that because the admin user doesn’t have the necessary private keys (or preimages, in the case of hashlock conditions). They’re not stored in the database.

docs/root/source/diversity.md

@@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ Steps should be taken to make it difficult for any one actor or event to control
 2. **Geographic diversity.** The servers should be physically located at multiple geographic locations, so that it becomes difficult for a natural disaster (such as a flood or earthquake) to damage enough of them to cause problems.
 3. **Hosting diversity.** The servers should be hosted by multiple hosting providers (e.g. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Digital Ocean, Rackspace), so that it becomes difficult for one hosting provider to influence enough of the nodes.
 4. **Operating system diversity.** The servers should use a variety of operating systems, so that a security bug in one OS can’t be used to exploit enough of the nodes.
-5. **Diversity in general.** In general, membership diversity (of all kinds) confers many advantages on a federation. For example, it provides the federation with a source of various ideas for addressing challenges.
+5. **Diversity in general.** In general, membership diversity (of all kinds) confers many advantages on a consortium. For example, it provides the consortium with a source of various ideas for addressing challenges.
 
-Note: If all the nodes are running the same code, i.e. the same implementation of BigchainDB, then a bug in that code could be used to compromise all of the nodes. Ideally, there would be several different, well-maintained implementations of BigchainDB Server (e.g. one in Python, one in Go, etc.), so that a federation could also have a diversity of server implementations.
+Note: If all the nodes are running the same code, i.e. the same implementation of BigchainDB, then a bug in that code could be used to compromise all of the nodes. Ideally, there would be several different, well-maintained implementations of BigchainDB Server (e.g. one in Python, one in Go, etc.), so that a consortium could also have a diversity of server implementations.

docs/root/source/immutable.md

@@ -8,12 +8,12 @@ It’s true that blockchain data is more difficult to change than usual: it’s
 
 BigchainDB achieves strong tamper-resistance in the following ways:
 
-1. **Replication.** All data is sharded and shards are replicated in several (different) places. The replication factor can be set by the federation. The higher the replication factor, the more difficult it becomes to change or delete all replicas.
+1. **Replication.** All data is sharded and shards are replicated in several (different) places. The replication factor can be set by the consortium. The higher the replication factor, the more difficult it becomes to change or delete all replicas.
 2. **Internal watchdogs.** All nodes monitor all changes and if some unallowed change happens, then appropriate action is taken. For example, if a valid block is deleted, then it is put back.
-3. **External watchdogs.** Federations may opt to have trusted third-parties to  monitor and audit their data, looking for irregularities. For federations with publicly-readable data, the public can act as an auditor.
+3. **External watchdogs.** A consortium may opt to have trusted third-parties to monitor and audit their data, looking for irregularities. For a consortium with publicly-readable data, the public can act as an auditor.
 4. **Cryptographic signatures** are used throughout BigchainDB as a way to check if messages (transactions, blocks and votes) have been tampered with enroute, and as a way to verify who signed the messages. Each block is signed by the node that created it. Each vote is signed by the node that cast it. A creation transaction is signed by the node that created it, although there are plans to improve that by adding signatures from the sending client and multiple nodes; see [Issue #347](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/issues/347). Transfer transactions can contain multiple inputs (fulfillments, one per asset transferred). Each fulfillment will typically contain one or more signatures from the owners (i.e. the owners before the transfer). Hashlock fulfillments are an exception; there’s an open issue ([#339](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/issues/339)) to address that.
 5. **Full or partial backups** of the database may be recorded from time to time, possibly on magnetic tape storage, other blockchains, printouts, etc.
 6. **Strong security.** Node owners can adopt and enforce strong security policies.
 7. **Node diversity.** Diversity makes it so that no one thing (e.g. natural disaster or operating system bug) can compromise enough of the nodes. See [the section on the kinds of node diversity](diversity.html).
 
-Some of these things come "for free" as part of the BigchainDB software, and others require some extra effort from the federation and node owners.
+Some of these things come "for free" as part of the BigchainDB software, and others require some extra effort from the consortium and node owners.

docs/root/source/terminology.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Terminology
 
-There is some specialized terminology associated with BigchainDB. To get started, you should at least know what what we mean by a BigchainDB *node*, *cluster* and *federation*.
+There is some specialized terminology associated with BigchainDB. To get started, you should at least know what what we mean by a BigchainDB *node*, *cluster* and *consortium*.
 
 
 ## Node
@@ -13,10 +13,10 @@ A **BigchainDB node** is a machine or set of closely-linked machines running Ret
 A set of BigchainDB nodes can connect to each other to form a **cluster**. Each node in the cluster runs the same software. A cluster contains one logical RethinkDB datastore. A cluster may have additional machines to do things such as cluster monitoring.
 
 
-## Federation
+## Consortium
 
-The people and organizations that run the nodes in a cluster belong to a **federation** (i.e. another organization). A federation must have some sort of governance structure to make decisions. If a cluster is run by a single company, then the federation is just that company.
+The people and organizations that run the nodes in a cluster belong to a **consortium** (i.e. another organization). A consortium must have some sort of governance structure to make decisions. If a cluster is run by a single company, then the "consortium" is just that company.
 
-**What's the Difference Between a Cluster and a Federation?**
+**What's the Difference Between a Cluster and a Consortium?**
 
-A cluster is just a bunch of connected nodes. A federation is an organization which has a cluster, and where each node in the cluster has a different operator. Confusingly, we sometimes call a federation's cluster its "federation." You can probably tell what we mean from context.
+A cluster is just a bunch of connected nodes. A consortium is an organization which has a cluster, and where each node in the cluster has a different operator.