Confirmations – This is a measurement of how many blocks of transactions miners have published since a transaction was added to the blockchain. Confirmations prove and verify that the transactions added to the blockchain are legitimate. Every additional block added to the blockchain provides greater security, since more confirmations make transactions more difficult for miners to modify. Thus, multiple confirmations add more security, but also take more time.
Masternodes – Powerful, collateral-backed servers that maintain full copies of the Dash blockchain and provide services and governance to the network. Serving as the backbone of the Dash network, masternodes are run by individuals or groups who prove ownership of 1,000 Dash per masternode they operate, and are paid by the network for the services they provide. The Dash ownership prerequisite ensures that masternodes are widely distributed among a large number of operators, thus enabling a number of features that depend on a decentralized network.
ChainLocks – Feature on the Dash Network that provides finality within seconds when a new block of transactions are published. The certainty is achieved through consensus agreement of the masternodes, and the masternodes provide cryptographic signatures broadcasted to all network participants proving their consensus. Once a valid ChainLock message is broadcast, all network participants consider the associated block to be final and unchangeable. In fact, transactions contained in a ChainLocked block can be considered fully confirmed after the first confirmation on the chain.