DAO Dictionary

DAO Dictionary

There are a lot of terms and slang in the DAO and 'web3' ecosystem. We're here to help you make sense of it all.

Anarcho-capitalism

A political philosophy embraced by the DAO community originally conceived by American economist Murray Rothbard.

Atomic Swap

Transfering cryptocurrencies between parties without using an exchange or other intermediary.

Astroturfing

Pretending marketing campaigns and sponsored messages represent the unprompted views of genuine community members.

Airdrop

A campaign, usually for marketing/publicity purposes, involving sending small ammounts of a new virtual currency or tokens to people often for free or for a small favour

Blockchain Explorer

A search engine allowing users to browse through blockchain records.

Blockchain

Block chains are a distributed ledger system. A sequence of blocks, or units of digital information, stored consecutively in a public database. The basis for DAO's.

Bridges

Allows a smooth transfer of data or tokens between two different blockchain projects.

Block Explorer

Also known as a blockchain browser, block explorer's are applications that allow users to view details of blocks on a given blockchain.

Block

Blocks are files acting as the building blocks of a blockchain, containing information on transactions completed during a given time period.

Blockchain Trilemma

The blockchain trilemma is the set of three issues that plague blockchains: security, scalability, and decentralization.

Banking as a Service (BAAS)

BaaS platforms let banks open up their API's to third parties to develop new services which allows for a higher level of financial transparency options.

Block Producer

The person or group whose hardware is used to verify a block's transactions and start the next block on most Proof-of-Stake blockchains.

Blockchain Transmission Protocol (BTP)

A universal protocol securely anchoring transactions to enable isolated blockchains to operate as a fully decentralized settlement layer.

Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)

Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is a computer property allowing it to reach consensus regardless of the failure of some components.

Block Trade

A large scale purchase/sale occurring outside an open market using blockhouse as a financial intermediary to aid with risk management.

Block Height

The number of blocks preceding the a block in a blockchain

Block Header

A block header is a unique identifier on blocks that is hashed continuously to supply proof of work for mining incentives.

Block Size

The transaction data capacity of a single block in the chain.

Basket

When used in the DAO space, a basket refers to a collection of digital currencies managed as a single asset.

Block Time

Block time is the approximate time it takes for a new block to be produced from a blockchain-based system.

Blockchain-Enabled Smart Locks

Smart locks that can be locked or unlocked depending on the state of a variable embedded in a smart contract. Can solve numerous security issues.

DeFi

A rapidly growing area encouraging alternatives to traditional, centralized forms of financial services such as banks and institutions.

Decentralized Autonomous Initial Coin Offerings (DAICO)

A decentralized project funding method that allows for a form of governance in the ICO process by allowing backers to vote for the return of their funds if certain conditions are met.

Decentralized Database

A modern storage solution combining decentralized technologies with advanced computing to randomly store data and files across multiple nodes. Thus decentralized databases are censorship resistant while delivering high security and unmatched availability.

DYCO (Dynamic Coin Offering)

DYCO (dynamic coin offering) is a recently developed crowdfunding model created by DAO Maker employing utility tokens backed by USD.

Dual-Token Economy/Model (Two-Token Economy)

In the context of blockchain, a dual-token model or economy means a project with two tokens, one of which is used as security to raise funds for the crypto project and the other one for utility inside the network.

Decentralized Currency

Decentralized currency refers to methods of transferring wealth or ownership of a commodity without needing a bank or other third party.

Decentralized Applications (DApps)

A category of application running on a decentralized network, thus avoiding a single point of failure.

Decentralization Maximalism

The belief that decentralization is the best approach and regulation is not needed at all.

DeFi Aggregator

A DeFi aggregator brings trade from various DeFi platforms together in one place.

DAO

A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is created and governed by a set of blockchain-based smart contracts and computer-defined rules.

Delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPOS)

A verification and consensus mechanism in blockchains that acts as an alternative to the Proof-of-Stake and Proof-of-Work consensus algorithms.

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)

A database that is shared in multiple places, by multiple participants. The basis for blockchains.

Decentralized

Decentralization refers to the property of a system in which actors or nodes work together in a distributed way to achieve a common goal.

Dead Coin

A no longer existing cryptocurrency.

DAO Summoning

The act of creating or forming a DAO. Although typically the term is used in the context of forming a Moloch DAO, it can also refer to the formation of any new DAO.

Decentralized Marketplace

A decentralized marketplace, built on blockchain technology, allows traders and investors to trade with each other without the need for middlemen. They require no intermediaries to make trades possible and are available globally.

Decentralized Identifier (DID)

A decentralized identifier, or DID, refers to an ID that acts as a proof of ownership of digital identity that can be issued by an independent, autonomous, and decentralized platform.

Exchange

Businesses that allow customers to buy and sell assets.

Equity

The funds that would be returned to a company's shareholders if all of the company's assets were dissolved and all debts were paid off in the event of liquidation.

Emission

A term for the speed at which new coins are produced and released.

Epoch

One entire run of the training dataset through the algorithm.

Economic Utility

A term in economics that refers to the total satisfaction that a person can derive from consuming a good or service.

Erasure Encoding

A method of storing data at multiple locations after doing its segmentation, expansion, and encoding with the redundant information.

Event Triggers

When a transaction is mined a smart contract will emit events and write logs to the blockchain.

ERC-20

The most popular ethereum token standard.

Edge Nodes

A computer that serves as an end-user gateway to form a connection with other nodes.

Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)

A security that tracks a basket of assets such as stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies but can be traded like a single asset.

Ethash

Ethash is the algorithm utilized for the proof of work mining of Ethereum.

Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA)

A group of entities working together to further develop the Ethereum network.

ERC-1155

An ethereum token standard created by Enjin and offers more security in comparison to older token standards.

Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)

Standards for the Ethereum platform including core protocol specifications, client APIs, and contract standards.

E-Signature

An electronic signature is any electronic mark (sign, sound, symbol, etc.) used in the place of a physical signature in signing a document or contract.

Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)

A Turing-complete virtual machine that is the runtime environment for every smart contract on the Ethereum network.

ERC-721

A popular token standard for non-fungible Ethereum tokens.

Escrow

A financial instrument where assets or cash are held by a third party while a buyer and a seller complete a deal.

Encryption

A method through which information can be made into code.

ERC-884

ERC-884 facilitates the creation of tradable ERC-20 tokens, each of which symbolizes a numberless share issued by a Delaware corporation.

Ether

The form of payment used in the operation of Ethereum.

Fiat-Pegged Cryptocurrency

A coin, token or asset issued on a blockchain that is linked in price to a government or bank-issued currency.

Fork (Blockchain)

A chain split that creates an alternate version of the blockchain, leaving two blockchains to run simultaneously.

Fee Tiers

The fee structure that determines the amount charged by an exchange when investors deposit or withdraw money and execute trades.

Full Node

A node that has downloaded a blockchain’s entire transaction history in order to observe and enforce its rules.

Fiat

Fiat currency is legal tender backed by a central government, such as the Federal Reserve. It can take the form of physical cash, or it can be represented electronically, such as with bank credit.

Fan Token

A name sometimes used to describe a token issued by an organization or DAO that allows its holders to participate in the governing activities and attain exclusive rewards & discounts.

Fungible

A term to describe when a coin or token can be replaced by any other identical coin or token.

Futures

A contractual standardized legal agreement to buy or sell a particular asset at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future.

Fractional Stablecoins

A fractional stablecoin is one that is backed in two ways: collaterally-backed and algorithmically modified to be a portion of the original stablecoin.

Faucet

A reward system usually that rewards users for completing certain tasks.

Flash Crash

A market condition where an asset’s price falls very rapidly within a very brief time period.

Fork (Software)

When an entirely new program has been developed from the source code.

Flash Loan

A transaction in which a specific quantity of liquidity is borrowed and repaid in the same transaction or block.

GameFi

An industry that references games that are designed with economic and financial aspects of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, enabling players to exert full control over their in-game assets and generate revenue.

Governance Token

A token that grants decision-making powers regarding the project and can be used to vote on proposals that influence the ecosystem.

Genesis Block

The first block of data that is processed and validated to form a new blockchain.

Gas

A unit of measure for the computational effort/fee of a miner for verifying transactions or smart contracts.

Gas Price

A term that refers to the price for the computational effort/fee of a miner for verifying transactions on a blockchain.

Governance

Process defined as the people or organizations that have decision-making powers regarding the project.

Group Mining

A process when multiple people mine or combine their assets to verify transactions on the blockchain together.

Gas Limit

A term that refers to the maximum amount of gas the user is willing to spend on a transaction.

Graphical Processing Unit (GPU)

More commonly known as a graphics card also efficient for mining cryptocurrencies.

GitHub

GitHub is one of the most popular code hosting platforms used for allowing developers to collaborate on various projects.

Gwei

The denomination used in defining the cost of gas in transactions involving Ether on the ethereum network.

Hot Wallet

A cryptocurrency wallet that is connected to the internet for hot storage of crypto assets, as opposed to an offline, cold wallet with cold storage.

Hard Cap

The absolute maximum supply of a digital asset.

Hash

The output result of a hashing algorithm, which creates a unique, fixed-length string to encrypt and secure a certain selection of arbitrary data.

Hash Power / Hash Rate

A unit of measurement for the amount of computing power being consumed by the network to continuously operate.

Hot Storage

The online storage of private keys in a software wallet allowing for quicker access to cryptocurrencies.

Halving

An event in which the total rewards per confirmed block is cut in half.

Hybrid PoW/PoS

A mix between PoW/PoS allows for both proof-of-stake and proof-of-work as consensus distribution algorithms on the network. This approach aims to bring together the security of PoW consensus and the governance and energy efficiency of PoS.

Hard Fork (Blockchain)

A type of protocol change that validates all previously invalid transactions, and invalidates all previously valid transactions, before changing the underlying protocol.

Hard Peg

An exchange rate policy where an asset is set at a fixed rate against another asset.

Hardware Security Module

A type of physical computing device that secures digital keys and encrypts data.

Hyperinflation

The unrestricted growth in prices for goods and services in an economy.

Hacking

The process of using a computer to manipulate another computer or computer system in an unauthorized fashion.

Hard Fork Combinator

A hard fork combinator (first designed by IOHK) is a tool to combine protocols specifically on the Cardano blockchain after a hard fork has occurred.

Hosted Wallet

A wallet managed by an external third-party service where the private keys are not held by the user who owns the assets in the wallet.

Hash Function

Any function used to map data of arbitrary size to data of a fixed size.

Hardware Wallet

A wallet for cryptocurrencies that stores a user's private keys on a physical device usually resembling a USB stick.

Off-Chain Governance

A type of blockchain governance in which decisions are made informally, away from the primary code base of the blockchain.

Open Source

A process by which participants believe in the free and open sharing of information in pursuit of the greater common good.

One Cancels the Other Order (OCO)

A situation where two orders for an asset are placed simultaneously, with a rule in place to enforce that if one is accepted, the other is canceled.

Online Storage

The act of storing data in devices or systems connected to the internet.

On-Chain Governance

A decentralized framework of governance used for organizing and integrating updates/improvements to the blockchain networks.

Oversold

When an asset has been sold by more and more investors over time, with its price decreasing for an extended period of time.

On-Ledger Currency

A currency that is both minted on the blockchain ledger and also used on the blockchain ledger.

Off-Chain

Events that occur outside the blockchain network.

Oracles

An agent that finds and verifies information on the blockchain by providing data to smart contracts for execution of said contracts under specified conditions.

On-Balance Volume (OBV)

A technical trading indicator that forecasts an asset's price movements based on the volume flow.

On-Chain

Transactions that are recorded on the blockchain itself and shared with all of the participants.

Offline Storage

The act of storing cryptocurrencies in devices or systems not connected to the internet or hardware wallets.

Off-Chain Transaction

A second-layer protocol where the transactions occur on a network outside of the blockchain.

Order Book

Comprises current buy and sell orders regarding an asset.

Overbought

When an asset has been purchased by more and more investors over time, with its price increasing for an extended period of time.

OpenSea

OpenSea is a decentralized peer-to-peer platform for NFTs.

Option

A contract giving the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a specified strike price.

Orphan

A valid block on the blockchain that is not part of the main chain.

Infinite Approval

Approving the smart contracts beforehand to enable the platform to spend an unlimited amount of your coins.

Initial Stake Pool Offering (ISPO)

The Initial Stake Pool Offering (ISPO) is a relatively new crypto fundraising method exclusive to the Cardano ecosystem. Different from existing fundraising models, ISPOs are more decentralized, inclusive, secure, and equitable.

Initial Bounty Offering (IBO)

An innovative way of launching a project focusing on people contributing skills to a platform instead of money.

Initial Token Offering (ITO)

Similar to initial coin offerings, ITOs have more of a focus on offering tokens with intrinsic utility such as software or usage into an ecosystem

Initial Farm Offering (IFO)

Initial Farm Offering (IFO) uses the farming feature offered by decentralized exchanges to help DeFi projects raise capital.

Initial Dex Offering (IDO)

An initial dex offering is an alternative to using initial coin offering (ICO).

Initial Exchange Offering

A form of crowdfunding where crypto start-ups list through an exchange to generate capital.

Initial Game Offering (IGO)

Initial game offerings (IGOs) provide individuals with opportunities to invest in early stage gaming projects having the potential to offer immense returns after their launch.

Initial Coin Offering (ICO)

Short for Initial Coin Offering, an ICO is a form of crowdfunding using cryptocurrencies as a means of raising capital for new companies on-chain.

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) .

Public Blockchain

A blockchain that can be accessed by anyone.

Proof-of-Immutability (PoIM)

A mechanism by which the blockchain ledger is guaranteed to remain unchanged, unaltered, and indelible in a decentralized and provably immutable manner.

Profit and Loss (P&L) Statement

A financial document that gives a sum up of the earnings and expenditures incurred during a specified period.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P)

The decentralized interactions between parties in a network distributing tasks or workloads between peers.

Permissioned Ledger

A ledger designed with restrictions where only entities requiring access have permission to access it.

Proof-of-Developer (PoD)

Verification that provides evidence of a software developer who created a smart contract.

Programmability

Something that is capable of following coded instructions.

Pre-IDO

Pre-IDO refers to token offerings before the initial DEX offering (IDO) takes place.

Pre-Mine

The amount of a coin’s initial supply that is generated during or before the public launch.

Pre-Sale

The sale of a cryptocurrency, DAO tokens, or equity to specific investors ahead of it going public.

Pegged Currency

A currency whose value is pegged to a real-world asset.

Portfolio

A collection of assets held by an investment company, hedge fund, financial institution or individual.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending

A practice of lending assets without the involvement of a middleman.

Peg

To set a specified price for the rate of exchange between two assets.

Proof-of-Work (PoW)

A blockchain consensus mechanism involving solving of computationally intensive puzzles to validate transactions and create new blocks.

Proof-of-Spacetime

A mechanism that maintains integrity by a guarantee that they are spending a certain amount of space for storage.

Payee

A payee is a party within an exchange of goods or even services that can receive payment.

Platform

Platform refers to the parent blockchain of tokens.

Paper Trading

Simulated trading is the practice of using a virtual transactional environment to simulate trading without the use of real capital.

Passive Income

Money produced from investments that do not require the earner to be actively involved.

Private Blockchain

A type of blockchain in which only a single organization has control and authority over the entire network.

Proof-of-Authority (PoA)

A blockchain consensus mechanism that verifies transactions using identity as a stake.

Private Key/Secret Key

A piece of code generated in an asymmetric-key encryption process, paired with a public key, to identify an entity on the blockchain.

Public Address

The cryptographic hash of a public key allowing the user to use it as an address to request for payment.

Prediction Market

Exchange-traded markets where the future outcomes of events are traded.

Pair

Trade between one asset and another, for example, the trading pair ETH/USDC.

Public Sale

A public sale is the final stage of an ICO in which a company directly offers its token to the public before the token is listed on cryptocurrency exchanges for secondary sales.

Proof-of-Validation

A blockchain consensus mechanism that is a unique form of proof-of-stake (PoS) that works to achieve consensus through staked validator nodes that validate transactions and create new blocks.

Proof-of-Donation

The integration of charitable donations using the functionality of a blockchain verification mechanism.

Public Key

A series of alphanumeric characters that serves as an entity on the blockchain when paired with a private key.

Permissionless

A system when there is no entity that can regulate who can use it and how it can be used.

Proof-of-Burn (PoB)

A blockchain consensus mechanism verifying that a cost was incurred in “burning” a coin by sending it to an unspendable address.

Put Option

A put option contract offers an owner the option to sell an underlying security at a certain price within a given time frame.

Price Impact

The difference between market price and the estimated price due to trade size.

Play2Earn (Play-to-Earn)

A gaming model that has an open economy and gives financial rewards to players who bring value to its ecosystem.

Protocol

The set of rules that define interactions on a blockchain involving transaction validation, consensus, and network participation.

Protocol Layer

The different algorithms that determine how consensus is achieved and who gets to create new blocks, in short it is the rules and processes that govern how the network will operate.

Post-Mine

The retroactive creation of new coins following a cryptocurrency’s launch before the public mining is possible.

Public-Key Cryptography

A collection of algorithms-based cryptographic procedures that are used to randomize secret data.

Proof-of-Stake (PoS)

A blockchain consensus mechanism that maintains the integrity of blockchain through staked native coins used to validate transactions and create new blocks.

Proof-of-Replication

The mechanism by which a storage miner proves to the network that they are storing an entirely unique copy of a piece of data.

Quorum (Governance)

Term for the minimum number of members of an assembly or DAO that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings of that meeting valid.

Regulatory Compliance

A set of mandates that every company or an industry is required to follow.

Rehypothecation

Rehypothecation is the practice where banks or the brokers use assets that have been posted as collateral by their clients for their own purposes.

ROI

Short for “Return on Investment,” the ratio of the net profit by the cost of investing.

Relay Nodes

Relay nodes help block-producing validator nodes communicate by guaranteeing that the authenticity of the core nodes and the blockchain is preserved.

Regulated

Regulation is when something is governed by a specific set of rules.

Relative Strength Index (RSI)

A form of technical analysis that measures the speed and change of price movements.

Replicated Ledger

A copy of a distributed ledger in a network that is distributed to all participants in the network.

Rank

The position of a cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Roadmap

A high-level summary that maps out the vision as well as the direction of a specific product or project.

Recovery Seed

A cryptographically derived security code composed of a list of random words used to verify ownership.

Rebase

A process designed so that one data variable moves in relation to another, typically used in reference to the circulating supply of a token adjusting automatically according to price fluctuations.

Web 3.0

Web 3.0 is the term to describe the new generation of the internet which incorporates decentralization of data and interoperability of digital assets.

Whale

A term used to describe investors who have very large amounts of crypto.

Whitepaper

A detailed document released by a project that gives investors a detailed overview into the project, including but not limited to technical information about its concept and a roadmap for how it plans to grow and succeed.

Wei

The smallest fraction of an Ether, which is equal to 1/1000000000000000000 Wei per Ether.

Winding Up

Winding up is the process of wrapping crypto tokens into a DeFi protocol.

Web 1.0

Web 1.0 is a term to describe the first generation of the internet, characterized as the read-only web.

Whitelist

A list of participants who are interested in a project's launch and are registered for pre-order.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 describes the current generation of the internet, defined by a centralization of data, collective generated content, and extreme rise of ease of use.

Watchlist

A watchlist is a feature of a website where users can create their own lists of projects, DAOs, or cryptocurrencies to follow for up to date changes in price or breaking news.

Winding Down

Winding down is the process of unwrapping tokens back to their original underlying asset and taking them out of the DeFi protocol.

Wallet

A destination on the blockchain where a user can store, send and receive digital assets.

Validator

A critical component of any proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain that is rewarded for verifying blocks on to the chain.

Vanity Address

A customized public wallet address usually picked by its owner.

Vesting Period

A term used for the period of time a particular token is restricted from being sold by an individual or entity.

Virtual Automated Market Makers (vAMMs)

A virtual Automated Market Maker (vAMM) is a system that provides synthetic liquidity for smart contracts, allowing traders to be able to make leveraged trades based on collateral stored in a smart contract vault, typically used for trading derivatives.

Volatility

A measure of the range of returns, typically used to describe the liability of an asset to change rapidly and unpredictably.

Volume

A measure for how much of an asset has been traded over a set period of time, usually measured over the last 24 hours.

Zero Confirmation Transaction

An unconfirmed transaction or an exchange that has not yet been verified on the blockchain.

Zero-Knowledge Proof

A zero-knowledge proof enables a party to provide evidence that a transaction happened without revealing private details of that transaction.

Total Value Locked (TVL)

Тotal value locked represents the number of assets that are currently being staked or used to provide liquidity in a specific protocol.

Token Standard

The token variation or set of rules that a smart contract adheres to, the most common ethereum token standard is ethereum request for comment or ERC.

Transaction (TX)

The act of exchanging assets on a blockchain, and that transaction being verified and hashed into the chain.

Token Lockup

A time period during which cryptocurrency tokens cannot be exchanged or traded.

Timelock/Locktime

A term used to describe a condition for a transaction in which it can only be processed at a certain time or block on the blockchain.

The DAO

The DAO is the first decentralized autonomous organization. Created by a group of developers in April 2016, known for the hack that caused the ETH hard fork.

Terahashes Per Second

Terahashes per second (Th/s) is equivalent to 1 trillion hashes per second. It is a unit used to indicate the power of a computer or mining machine.

Time-Weighted Automated Market Maker (TWAMM)

Time-Weighted Automated Market Maker (TWAMM) aims to help traders execute large orders with minimal slippage and low gas fees without negatively affecting the price by breaking longterm large orders down into an infinite number of infinitely small virtual orders, than executing transactions smoothly over time using an embedded AMM

Total Supply

The total amount of coins in existence right now, minus any coins that have been burned.

Transaction Fee

A fee for using the blockchain to transact.

Tokenomics

A term defined by a set of rules that governs a digital asset's issuance and supply.

Token Migration

The process of moving tokens from one blockchain to another.

Tokenized Securities

A term used to define the ownership of a security being materialized through the issuance of a token.

Total Exchange Volume

A measure of the total value that has been traded on an exchange in a given period of time.

Testnet

A test blockchain used by developers for testing.

Trade Volume

The amount of an asset that has been traded in a given period of time.

Token Issuance

The process of creating or minting new tokens and adding them to the total token supply of a cryptocurrency.

Transaction Triggers

A trigger can be set up on a blockchain to group various transactions together to be executed when the designated conditions are met.

Ticker Symbol

The ticker symbol is the unique short combination of letters assigned to stocks or cryptocurrencies that make them distinguishable on trading applications.

Timestamp

A term to describe when a certain transaction occurred, typically expressed in terms of UTC.

Transactions Per Second

Transactions per second (TPS) is a measure of a network's capacity to perform calculations in a single second.

Trustless

A state of being where there is no centralized authority.

Token

A digital unit providing access and use of a larger smart contract.

Trading Bot

A trading bot is a program that is designed to automate asset trading.

Tokenize

The process by which an asset is turned into something of digital value called a token, allowing ownership of parts of this asset to different owners.

Yield Curve

The yield curve is a graphical representation that plots the relationship between yields and maturities of fixed income securities.

Yield Farming

Yield farming involves earning interest by investing crypto in decentralized finance markets through lending or staking an asset to generate passive yield.

YTD

Abbreviation for Year to Date.

Yield Sensitivity

Yield sensitivity also known as interest rate sensitivity is a measure of how much a fixed income asset’s price changes due to the fluctuation in interest rates.

Contract

A contract is a binding agreement between two parties in traditional finance. In DAOs and cryptocurrency, smart contracts execute functions on the blockchain.

Centralized Exchange (CEX)

A cryptocurrency exchange where the company that operates it owns it in a centralized manner.

Certificate of Deposit (CD)

A financial product that allows customers to earn an interest rate premium following a deposit.

CeDeFi

Centralized decentralized finance, merges conventional regulatory policies with modern financial products and infrastructure, combining traditional centralized financial services with decentralized applications,

Collateralization

Collateralization is the process of securing a loan on an asset using a different asset as insurance.

Core Wallet

Instead of just a piece of a blockchain, core crypto wallets are able to contain an entire blockchain.

Coordinator

In blockchain technology, a coordinator is a specialized client that verifies the validity of the ledger against specific transactions using nodes.

Composable Token

An ERC-998 token, a standard extension to any non-fungible token, allowing non-fungible tokens to own both non-fungible (ERC-721) and fungible (ERC-20) tokens.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an independent federal regulatory agency responsible for regulating the U.S. derivatives market.

Composable DeFi

Composable DeFi refers to the interoperability between different DeFi protocols. It enables a multitude of DeFi applications to work along and create a wide range of new use cases and financial products.

Unbanked

Unbanked refers to those that are unable to access typical western banking services.

Unpermissioned Ledger

A public ledger that is open source.

Utility Token

Tokens that are designed with the intention of providing something of value beyond the underlying asset itself for its holder.

Unregulated

An industry which is not controlled by a centralized authority or a governing intuition.

UTC Time

Coordinated Universal Time.

Unconfirmed

A state in which a transaction has not been verified and hashed into the blockchain.

Nominators

Nominators are one of two main actors, the other being validators, who are involved in a blockchain network which uses the nominated proof-of-stake consensus algorithm.

Layer 0

Layer 0 is a network framework running underneath the blockchain. Made up of protocols, hardware, connections, miners, and more, it forms the foundation of the blockchain ecosystem.

Layer 2

The name of the scaling solution enabling high throughput of transactions while inheriting the security of the underlying blockchain it's built on.

Mainnet

An independent blockchain with its own technology and protocol to run its own network.

Moloch DAO

Moloch DAO can refer to the DAO framework, either a DAO that uses the framework, or the name of the Ethereum grant-giving DAO that originally created the framework.

Masternodes

Masternodes are servers maintained by their owners, similar to full nodes, but with additional functionalities such as clearing transactions, anonymizing transactions, and participating in governance.

libp2p

Libp2p is a system of protocols, libraries, and specifications that enable decentralized peer-to-peer networking.

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