Sybil Attack
Sybil attacks undermine an online network by creating IDs, accounts or nodes to upset the balance of power and gain 51% control of the blockchain.
Soft Fork (Blockchain)
A protocol upgrade where the entirety of blockchain miners agree to change their mining software/protocol.
Security
A tradable financial instrument or asset that carries a type of monetary value.
Smart Contract
A computer protocol coded on to the blockchain to run autonomously and facilitate, verify or enforce a contracted set of conditions without third parties.
Store of Value
A store of value is an asset that hedges against inflation by maintaining it's value despite currency fluctuations.
Shard
A portion of a blockchain network that has been split into multiple subsets of data.
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer which has a significantly increased capacity and processing power.
Seed Phrase
A series of generated words that serve as the single starting point when deriving keys unique to one wallet.
Stale Block
A block which was successfully mined but not included on the current blockchain, usually because another block was added to the chain first.
Storage Miners
Blockchain miners are a key infrastructure component to any blockchain by offering sufficient storage space for nodes to reach consensus and validate transactions.
Side Chain
A blockchain ledger that runs in parallel to a primary blockchain with a two-way link between the primary chain and sidechain.
SPAC
A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is an entity formed by investors with the sole purpose of eventually acquiring an established business, they usually formed to publicly list an organization without going through the troubles that come with the traditional IPO process.
Sharding
Sharding is a bandwidth scaling approach that enables splitting of blockchain states into partitions so that each shard can be processed in parallel, allowing for the distribution of data processing increasing overall processing speed.
Soft Peg
A method of keeping the value of a currency within a certain range against a reserve asset.
Scaling Problem
A term used to generally describe the imitations of a blockchain's transaction bandwidth.
Secure Multi-Party Computation (sMPC)
A protocol that allows parties to jointly compute a function while keeping the inputs private.
Source Code
A collection of computer-executable commands written in a programming language is called a source code.
Staking Pool
A place where users can combine their resources in order to increase their chances of earning rewards in a proof of stake consensus. This mechanism offers more staking power to the network to verify and validate new blocks.
SHA-256
A cryptographic hash function that generates a 256-bit signature text, used in Bitcoin proof-of-work.
Stablecoin
A cryptocurrency with extremely low volatility, sometimes used as a means of portfolio diversification and usually tied to an underlying asset. Examples include gold-backed cryptocurrency or fiat-pegged cryptocurrency.
Synthetic Asset
Synthetic assets, sometimes referred to as synths, are a combination of cryptocurrencies and traditional derivative assets. In other words, synths are tokenized derivatives.
Staking
A term for putting your tokens in to serve as a validator to the blockchain and receive rewards in a proof-of-stake (PoS) system.
Storage (Decentralized)
The process of storing files online by splitting them into encrypted fragments and delegating these fragments to multiple nodes on a distributed ledger.
Scaling Solution
A method to enable a system to expand.
Satoshi Nakamoto
The name of the entity that created Bitcoin.
Smart Contract Audit
A security check done by a third-party team of cybersecurity professionals meant to ensure that the on-chain code behind a smart contract is devoid of bugs or security vulnerabilities.
Software Stack
A set of software products that work together to provide a particular function.
State Channel
A second-layer scaling solution that reduces the total on-chain transactions necessary, moving the transactions off-chain and letting participants sign to the main chain after multiple off-chain transactions.
Second-Layer Solutions
A set of solutions built on top of a public blockchain to extend its scalability and efficiency relying on the settlement layer of the primary blockchain.
Symbol
Another term for the ticker of a cryptocurrency; for example, Ether's symbol is ETH.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
An independent agency of the United States federal government that is responsible for enforcing federal securities laws, proposing securities rules, and regulating the securities industry, securities exchanges, and other related activities and organizations.
Supply and Demand
Supply and demand are the levels in an economy that determine the market's willingness to buy or sell assets based on the current amount available and current user want for the asset.
Settlement Layer
A settlement layer is a primary first layer that provides an anchor for an entire ecosystem.
Slippage
A consequence of supply and demand, the change in price a trader receives relative to what they initially requested.
Solidity
The programming language used for developing smart contracts on Ethereum.
Secondary Market
A place or exchange where investors or traders can buy and sell different kinds of assets or securities that they own with others.
Soft Cap
The minimum amount a project wants to raise during their initial coin offering (ICO) .