Web3 & Investing - Glossary of Terms

<< The Future of Web3 and Gaming Worthy Quotes from the World of Crypto and Finance >>

Web3 Glossary A-C

51% Attack: A potential attack on a blockchain network where a single entity controls more than 50% of the network's mining power. This level of control allows the attackers to manipulate the blockchain in significant ways, undermining its integrity and security.
Address: A unique identifier used to send and receive cryptocurrency transactions on a blockchain network.
AFK (Away From Keyboard): Indicates that a player is temporarily unavailable or inactive.
Aggro: Refers to the attention drawn from an enemy, often used in the context of drawing fire from NPCs (Non-Player Characters) or other players.
AI agent: A software system that perceives its environment through inputs, processes information to make decisions, and takes actions to achieve specific goals autonomously.
AI16Z: A decentralized AI trading fund on the Solana blockchain, functioning as an "AI Investment DAO." It utilizes AI agents to analyze market data and execute trades, promoting transparency and community governance.
Airdrop burn out: The fatigue or disinterest experienced by users after farming multiple airdrops, often leading to decreased participation in new airdrop farming opportunities.
Airdrop: Free distribution of cryptocurrency tokens or NFTs to wallet addresses, often used for marketing or community building and decentralization purposes.
Alpha: Early or exclusive information that could give a crypto investor/trader an edge in the market.
Altcoin: Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin, such as Ether, Solana, or Dogecoin.
Alt Coin Season: A period when alternative cryptocurrencies (non-Bitcoin) experience significant price increases and outperform Bitcoin.
AML (Anti-Money Laundering): Regulations and procedures designed to prevent the conversion of illegally obtained funds into legitimate assets.
AMM (Automated Market Maker): A decentralized exchange protocol that uses liquidity pools to enable trading without traditional order books.
AoE (Area of Effect): Describes attacks, spells or abilities that affect multiple targets within a specified area rather than a single enemy.
Avatar: A digital representation of a user, often customizable and potentially owned as an NFT.
Bagholder: An investor who holds onto a cryptocurrency that has significantly decreased in value, often hoping for a price recovery.
Bags: Slang for one's cryptocurrency holdings, especially those that have lost value.
Bear Market: A prolonged period of decline in the overall cryptocurrency market.
Bear Moon: The Bear Moon corresponds to the new moon, which symbolizes lower energy levels and is often seen as a time for price corrections or declines.
Bear Trap: A false signal suggesting a declining trend in a cryptocurrency's price, which then reverses, catching short sellers off guard.
Bearish: A negative outlook on the market or a specific cryptocurrency, expecting prices to decline.
Bears: Traders or investors who believe the market or a specific cryptocurrency will decrease in value. Also large, furry and grumpy animals that will remove your limbs.
Bitcoin Dominance: The ratio of Bitcoin's market capitalization to the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin Maximalist: Someone who believes Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that matters and will ultimately dominate the market.
Bitcoin Pizza Day: The annual commemoration of May 22, 2010, when Laszlo Hanyecz made the first real-world Bitcoin transaction by paying 10,000 BTC for two pizzas.
BitGold: A precursor to Bitcoin created by Nick Szabo in 1998 that proposed a system for digital money based on proof-of-work and cryptographic puzzles.
Black Swan Event: An unpredictable event with severe consequences, usually negatively impacting the markets.
Blinks: Blockchain links on the Solana blockchain which function as special URLs that enable users to perform a wide range of blockchain actions directly within social media platforms and other web surfaces.
Blobs: Short for Binary Large Objects, are large chunks of data that can be attached to Ethereum transactions. They were introduced as part of the Dencun upgrade to enhance Ethereum's scalability and reduce transaction costs.
Block Explorer: A web tool that allows users to view information about blockchain transactions, addresses, and blocks on a specific chain.
Block Reward: The cryptocurrency awarded to miners for successfully validating a new block in a blockchain.
Block: A collection of transaction data in a blockchain, typically created and validated at regular intervals.
Blockchain Game SDK: Software development kits designed specifically for creating blockchain-based games.
Blockchain Game: Games that utilize blockchain technology to manage in-game assets and economies, allowing players true ownership of their digital items.
Blockchain: A distributed ledger technology that records transactions across a network of computers, ensuring transparency and security.
Blow-off top: A chart pattern showing a steep and rapid increase in price followed by a sharp decline, often signaling the end of a bull market.
Breakdown: A technical trading term for when an asset's price drops below a key support level, potentially signaling a new downward trend.
Breakout: A technical trading pattern where an asset's price moves above a resistance level or below a support level with increased volume.
Breeding: A game mechanic where two NFTs can be combined to create a new, unique NFT (common in collectible games).
Bridging: The process of transferring assets or data between different blockchain networks.
Brown's Bottom: Refers to a controversial period from 1999 to 2002 during which Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown sold approximately half of the United Kingdom's gold reserves at historically low gold prices, marking what many believe to be the bottom of the market.
Bull Market: A prolonged period of increase in the overall cryptocurrency market.
Bull Moon: The Bull Moon is associated with the full moon, which is believed to signify a period of increased energy and market activity. This phase is often considered favorable for buying crypto.
Bull Trap: A false signal suggesting an upward trend in a cryptocurrency's price, which then reverses, catching buyers off guard.
Bullish: A positive outlook on the market or a specific cryptocurrency, expecting prices to increase.
Bulls: Traders or investors who believe the market or a specific cryptocurrency will increase in value.
Burn: The process of permanently removing tokens from circulation, often to reduce supply and potentially increase token value.
Burn Address: A cryptocurrency wallet address to which tokens can be sent but never retrieved, effectively removing them from circulation.
Camping: A strategy where a player remains in one location, often waiting for opponents to approach.
Capitulation: The point in a market downturn when investors give up hope and sell their assets, often marking the bottom of a bear market or a mid-cycle bottom.
Censorship Resistance: The ability of a network to prevent any single party from blocking, altering, or stopping valid transactions.
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs): Digital versions of fiat currencies issued and regulated by national central banks.
CEX (Centralized Exchange): A traditional cryptocurrency exchange operated by a central entity, like Binance or Coinbase.
Chain Agnostic: A blockchain-agnostic dAPP, game or platform is one that is designed to work seamlessly across multiple blockchain networks, rather than being tied to a single specific blockchain.
ChatGPT: A large language model developed by OpenAI that processes and generates human-like text responses through natural language conversations.
Chunks: In AI, smaller, manageable segments of data or information that are broken down from larger texts or datasets to make processing more efficient and to help AI systems better understand, remember, and work within their context windows.
Circulating Supply: The portion of a cryptocurrency's total supply that is currently accessible to the public and can be traded or held by users. It excludes coins that are locked, reserved, or not yet released.
Claude: AnAI assistant created by Anthropic that uses large language models to engage in conversations, perform analysis, write code, and help with various tasks through natural language interactions.
Cliff: A point in a vesting schedule where a large portion of tokens becomes available all at once.
Cold Wallet: A cryptocurrency wallet that is not connected to the internet, providing enhanced security against hacking.
Collateral: Assets pledged as security for a loan, trading account or financial obligation in DeFi protocols.
Co-Mingling: The practice of mixing customer funds with company funds, often considered a risky or unethical business practice.
Composability: Refers to the ability to combine and interconnect different blockchain protocols, smart contracts, and decentralized applications (dApps) to create new systems or functionalities. This concept is often likened to "money legos" in the crypto universe, allowing developers to build complex financial products and services by combining existing components.
Consensus Mechanism: The method by which a blockchain network agrees on the state of the ledger and validates transactions.
Contract Risk: The potential for financial loss due to smart contract vulnerabilities or failures in blockchain applications.
Correction: A temporary dip in the price of asset prices. Typically defined as a 10% to 20% decline from recent highs for stock markets.
Correlation: The statistical measure of how two assets move in relation to each other over time.
Counterparty Risk: The possibility that the other party in a financial transaction might fail to fulfill their obligations.
Crafting System: In-game mechanics for creating new items, often involving NFTs.
Crash: A sudden and significant drop in asset prices. Typically defined as a decline of at least 20% from recent highs for stock markets.
Cross-Game Assets: NFTs or other digital items that can be used across multiple games or platforms.
Crowdfunding: A method of raising capital by collecting small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the internet.
Cryptocurrency: A digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security and operates on a decentralized network.
Cryptography: The practice of secure communication techniques used to protect information in cryptocurrency transactions.
Cryptojacking: The unauthorized use of someone else's computing resources to mine cryptocurrency.
Cryptosis: A humorous term for the obsessive interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
Custodian: An entity that holds and secures digital assets on behalf of its clients.

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Web3 Glossary D-H

DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization): An organization governed by smart contracts and operated by token holders rather than traditional management.
DApp (Decentralized Application): An application that runs on a decentralized network, typically a blockchain, rather than a centralized server.
Data Availability: The guarantee that blockchain data is accessible and verifiable by network participants.
Dead Cat Bounce: A temporary recovery in price following a significant decline, often followed by continuation of the downward trend.
Death Cross: A bearish technical indicator occurring when a short-term moving average crosses below a long-term moving average.
Debasement: The reduction in a currency's value, typically through increasing its supply.
Decentralised Matchmaking: Peer-to-peer systems for connecting players in multiplayer games without a central server.
Decentralized Identity: A system for managing user identities without a central authority.
Decentralized: A system or network that operates without a central authority, typically distributed among many participants.
DefAi, or Decentralized Finance Artificial Intelligence, refers to the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies within decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. This emerging sector aims to enhance financial services through automation, predictive analytics, and improved decision-making processes.
DeFi (Decentralized Finance): Financial services and products built on blockchain technology, operating without traditional intermediaries.
DeFi Summer: The period in 2020 when decentralized finance protocols experienced explosive growth and popularity.
Deflationary: A characteristic of an asset or currency designed to decrease in supply over time, potentially increasing its value.
Degen yield farming: High-risk, high-reward strategies in DeFi involving leveraged positions and complex protocols.
Degen: Short for "degenerate," often used self-deprecatingly by crypto traders who make high-risk investments.
Delegate: To entrust one's tokens or voting power to another entity in a blockchain network, often for staking or governance purposes.
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS): A consensus mechanism where token holders vote for representatives to validate transactions.
Depeg: When a stablecoin loses its peg to the asset it's supposed to track, often causing market instability.
DePin: Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks, blockchain projects focusing on real-world infrastructure and services.
DEX (Decentralized Exchange): A cryptocurrency exchange that operates without a central authority, using smart contracts for trades.
Diamond Hands: Refers to an investor who holds onto their assets despite market volatility or losses, showing strong conviction in their investment.
Digital Asset: Any asset that exists in digital form, including cryptocurrencies, tokens, and NFTs.
Digital Land: Virtual real estate within a game or metaverse that can be owned, developed, and traded as NFTs.
Discord: A popular communication platform widely used by cryptocurrency and blockchain communities.
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT): A distributed ledger technology is a decentralized digital system that simultaneously records and synchronizes transactions across multiple computers or nodes in a network, ensuring transparency and immutability of data without requiring a central authority.
Dollar Cost Averaging: An investment strategy of buying a fixed dollar amount of a cryptocurrency at regular intervals, regardless of price.
Dolphins: Smaller but still substantial holders, with some market influence. Hold 100-500 BTC or equivalent amounts of other cryptocurrencies.
Double Spending: A potential flaw in digital currencies where the same funds are spent more than once, prevented by blockchain technology. Also, my wife.
Dox: The act of publicly revealing someone's private or identifying information without their consent.
DPS (Damage Per Second): A measure of the amount of damage a character or weapon can deal over time.
Dynamic NFTs (dNFTs): Non-fungible tokens that can change their properties or metadata over time based on external factors or predefined conditions. Unlike static NFTs, which remain unchanged after minting, dynamic NFTs are programmable and can evolve in response to various triggers.
Dumb Money: A derogatory term for retail investors who are perceived to make emotional or uninformed investment decisions.
DYOR: Acronym for "Do Your Own Research," encouraging investors to investigate before making investment decisions.
ecash: An early form of electronic cash system developed by David Chaum in the 1980s.
EMA (Exponential Moving Average): A technical indicator used in cryptocurrency trading to analyze recent price changes of an asset. It is a type of moving average that places greater weight and significance on the most recent data points compared to older data.
ERC-20: A token standard on the Ethereum blockchain, used for creating and issuing smart contract-based tokens.
ERC-721: A token standard on the Ethereum blockchain for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), representing unique digital assets.
ETF: Exchange-Traded Fund, a type of investment fund traded on stock exchanges, now including cryptocurrency-based funds.
Ethereum: A decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
EVM/Non EVM: Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible or non-compatible blockchains, referring to their ability to run Ethereum-like smart contracts.
F2P (Free-to-Play): Games that are free to play but may offer in-game purchases for items or enhancements.
Exit Liquidity: The ability to sell a large position in an asset without significantly impacting its price. In crypto, exit liquidity often refers to unsuspecting retail investors who are tricked into buying worthless altcoins from founders or early investors as they exit their positions.
Fair Launch: A cryptocurrency launch where all participants have equal access and no pre-mining or special allocations exist.
Fake Out: A price movement that appears to signal a new trend but quickly reverses, deceiving traders.
Farcaster: A decentralized social media protocol built on blockchain.
Farming (airdrop and yield): Strategies to maximize returns through participation in airdrops or providing liquidity to DeFi protocols.
Faucet: A website or application that gives away small amounts of cryptocurrency for free, often used for testing or to attract new users.
FDV: Fully Diluted Valuation, the theoretical market cap if all tokens were in circulation.
Fear and Greed Index: A metric that gauges the overall market sentiment towards cryptocurrencies.
FFA (Free For All): A game mode where every player competes against each other without teams.
Fiat Currency: Government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical commodity, such as the US Dollar or Euro.
Fish: Retail investors, often individual traders or small-scale investors typically holding 50 to 100 BTC or equivalent amounts of other cryptocurrencies.
Flippening: A hypothetical scenario where Ether's market cap surpasses Bitcoin's.
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): The anxiety or urgency to participate in a market opportunity due to perceived potential gains.
Fork: A split in a blockchain network, resulting in two separate chains with shared history up to the fork point.
Fractional Ownership: The division of an asset into smaller, tradeable portions through tokenization.
Fractionalized NFTs (FNFTs): Allow for shared ownership of valuable non-fungible tokens.
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt): The spread of negative information that influences market sentiment.
Game-Fi Yield: Returns earned from participating in blockchain game economies, often through staking or providing liquidity.
GameFi: A combination of gaming and finance, referring to games that allow players to earn cryptocurrency or other financial rewards through gameplay.
Gank: To ambush an opponent unexpectedly, typically in multiplayer games and usually in numbers. Stems from "gang kill".
Gas Optimization: Techniques to reduce transaction costs on blockchain.
Gas wars: Competitive bidding for transaction priority during high-demand periods on blockchain networks.
Gas-Free Gaming: Games or platforms that cover transaction fees to provide a smoother user experience.
Gas: The fee paid to process transactions or execute smart contracts.
GG (Good Game): A common phrase used at the end of a match to show sportsmanship, regardless of the outcome.
GG No Re (Good Game, No Rematch): Used somewhat ironically after one player decisively wins against another, indicating no desire for a rematch.
GLHF: good luck, have fun (used mostly in online video game chat). Often further abbreviated to GL or HF.
GFC (Global Financial Crisis): The severe worldwide economic crisis of 2007-2008 triggered by the U.S. subprime mortgage market collapse.
GM: "Good Morning," a greeting commonly used in crypto communities.
GOAT (Greatest Of All Time): A term used to describe someone considered the best in their field or game.
Golden Cross: A bullish technical indicator occurring when a short-term moving average crosses above a long-term moving average.
Governance Token: A cryptocurrency that gives holders voting rights in a protocol or platform's decision-making process.
Gresham's Law: The economic principle stating that "bad money drives out good" when two forms of money with the same face value circulate together.
Grey Swan Event: A potentially significant but predictable market event that is often overlooked.
Grok: An AI chatbot developed by xAI (Elon Musk's company) that aims to combine conversational ability with real-time knowledge from X/Twitter data while featuring a distinctive personality marked by humor and wit.
Guilds: Organizations in blockchain gaming, other crypto communities or DAOs that bring participants together for mutual benefit.
Gwei: A small denomination (one billionth of an ETH) of Ether, used to measure gas prices on the Ethereum network.
Hallucinations: In AI, hallucinations are instances when an AI model generates or outputs information that appears plausible but is factually incorrect, fabricated, or unsupported by its training data, essentially "making things up" despite appearing confident in its response.
Halving or Halvening: Bitcoin halving, often referred to as the "halvening," is where the reward for mining new blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain is reduced by half. This occurs roughly every four years, or every 210,000 blocks, and was designed to control inflation and limit the total supply of Bitcoin to 21 million coins.
Hash Rate: Hash rate quantifies the performance of a miner or mining pool, indicating how many hash computations are performed every second. This is crucial for determining the mining difficulty of a blockchain, which adjusts based on the total hash rate to maintain a consistent rate of block creation.
Hashcash: A proof-of-work system designed to combat email spam and denial of service attacks, later influential in Bitcoin's design.
HODL: Means "Hold On for Dear Life," a strategy that involves holding onto your crypto even when the market crashes. It started as a typo but became an accepted term amongst the crypto community. HODLing is all about ignoring short-term volatility in the hope of long-term gains.
Hot Wallet: A cryptocurrency wallet that is connected to the internet, allowing for quick transactions but with potentially lower security.

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Web3 Glossary I-N

IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication): A protocol enabling different blockchain networks to transfer data and assets between each other.
ICO (Initial Coin Offering): A fundraising method where new projects sell their cryptocurrency tokens to investors.
IDO: Initial DEX Offering, a method of launching new cryptocurrencies through decentralized exchanges.
IEO: Initial Exchange Offering, a token sale conducted on a cryptocurrency exchange.
IGO: An Initial Game Offering (IGO) is a crowdfunding method specifically designed for blockchain-based gaming projects. It allows game developers to raise capital during the early stages of game development by offering investors the opportunity to purchase in-game assets and tokens, often at discounted rates before they become publicly available.
Immutability: Refers to the permanent, unchangeable nature of data or transactions once they're recorded on a blockchain, making them tamper-proof and permanently verifiable.
In-game assets: Digital items, currencies, or properties that exist within video games and can have real-world value.
In-Game Economy: The system of transactions, rewards, and value creation within a game.
Inscriptions: Inscriptions are a way of embedding data like images, text, audio, or even software files inside individual satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin) or ordinals on the Bitcoin blockchain. They essentially create digital artifacts that can be stored and transferred, similar to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on other blockchains.
Interoperability: The ability of different blockchain networks to communicate and work together seamlessly.
Jettons: Token standard used on the TON blockchain.
Keys: Cryptographic codes used to access and manage cryptocurrency wallets (public and private keys).
Kiting: A tactic where a player attacks from a distance while avoiding damage by remaining at that safe distance.
KYB (Know Your Business): A due diligence process used by financial institutions and cryptocurrency platforms to verify the identity and legitimacy of business clients. It's similar to KYC but focuses on corporate entities rather than individuals. Often elicits the response, "mind your own business", but that isn't helpful.
KYC (Know Your Customer): The process of verifying the identity of customers, often required by cryptocurrency exchanges for regulatory compliance.
Large Language Model (LLM): A type of artificial intelligence system trained on vast amounts of text data to understand, generate, and manipulate human language through complex neural networks and statistical patterns.
Launchpad: A platform that helps new cryptocurrency projects raise funds and distribute tokens.
Layer 1s: A Layer 1 blockchain is the base-level protocol or network that executes and validates transactions without relying on an external system. It is the foundational layer of the blockchain infrastructure responsible for running the consensus protocol, processing transactions, and maintaining the state of the network.
Layer 2s: Scaling solutions built on top of existing blockchains to improve transaction speed and reduce costs.
Layer 3s: Additional scaling or application-specific layers built on top of Layer 2 solutions.
Layer Solution: Scaling technologies that help reduce transaction costs and increase speed in blockchain.
Leaderboard Contract: Smart contracts that manage and display player or user rankings.
Level Up: The process of increasing a character's level through experience points, often resulting in improved abilities or stats.
LFG: "Let's F***ing Go," an enthusiastic expression used to rally support or express excitement.
Limit Order: An order to buy or sell a cryptocurrency at a specific price or better.
Liquidity Pool: A collection of cryptocurrency funds locked in a smart contract, used to facilitate trading and provide liquidity in DeFi protocols.
Liquidity: The ease with which a cryptocurrency can be bought or sold without causing a significant price impact.
Long: A trading position that profits from an increase in the price of a cryptocurrency.
Loot Box NFT: A randomized reward system using NFTs, often requiring a key or token to open.
Loot: Items collected during gameplay that can enhance a player's abilities or resources.
Low Float High FDV: Refers to where a token has a low circulating supply (or "float") combined with a high fully diluted valuation (FDV) providing a risky investment landscape characterized by limited trading supplies and inflated valuations.
LRTs: Liquid Restaking Tokens, representing staked assets that can be used in DeFi while earning staking rewards.
LSTs: Liquid staking tokens are programmatically minted when users stake their cryptocurrencies through a liquid staking protocol. These tokens represent ownership of the staked assets and any rewards accrued from staking. Unlike traditional staking, where assets are locked and cannot be traded or utilized, LSTs provide a receipt that can be transferred, traded, or used as collateral in various DeFi applications.
Mainnet: The fully developed and deployed version of a blockchain network.
Margin: Trading with borrowed funds to increase potential profits (and risks).
Market Cap: The total value of a cryptocurrency, calculated by multiplying the circulating supply by the current price to gives it market capitalization.
Market Maker: An entity that provides liquidity by simultaneously offering to buy and sell assets.
Marketplace: A platform for buying, selling, or trading cryptocurrencies or NFTs.
Maximum Supply: The absolute limit on the number of coins that will ever exist for a cryptocurrency. Bitcoin for example has a max supply of 21 million coins.
Meme Coin: Cryptocurrencies inspired by internet memes, often with little utility beyond speculation.
Mempool: A waiting area for unconfirmed transactions in a blockchain network before they are added to a block.
MetaMask: A popular cryptocurrency wallet and gateway to blockchain applications, primarily used as a browser extension and most often used for EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatible blockchains.
Metaverse: A collective virtual shared space, often incorporating blockchain technology for digital ownership.
Metcalfe's Law: The principle that a network's value grows proportionally to the square of the number of its users.
MEV(Maximal Extractable Value): Refers to the maximum amount of value that can be extracted from block production in excess of the standard block rewards and gas fees. This is typically done by including, excluding, or changing the order of transactions within a block.
Milestones: Key development or business goals in a cryptocurrency project's roadmap.
Miner: An individual or entity that validates transactions and creates new blocks in proof-of-work blockchains.
Mining: The process of validating transactions and adding new blocks to a blockchain, often rewarded with cryptocurrency.
Minting: The process of creating new cryptocurrency tokens or NFTs and adding them to circulation.
Mixer: A service that obscures the origin of cryptocurrency transactions by mixing multiple transactions together.
Modularity: Modularity in cryptocurrency refers to a blockchain architecture that separates its core functions into distinct layers or components, allowing for greater flexibility, scalability, and efficiency. This design contrasts with traditional monolithic blockchains, where a single chain is responsible for all functions, including execution, consensus, settlement, and data availability.
Moon Bags: A portion of cryptocurrency holdings kept for long-term, potentially astronomical gains.
Moon: A colloquial term referring to a cryptocurrency's price rising dramatically, "to the moon."
Move-to-Earn (M2E): This model combines fitness with blockchain technology, allowing participants to earn crypto tokens while they engage in their regular exercise routines.
Multi-sig Wallet: A cryptocurrency wallet that requires multiple private keys to authorize a transaction, enhancing security.
MVP (Minimum Viable Product): The basic version of a product with enough features to attract early adopters and validate a business idea.
Naming Services: Blockchain-based systems that provide human-readable names for addresses and resources for specific blockchains.
Network Effect: The phenomenon where a product or service becomes more valuable as more people use it.
NFC (Near Field Communication): A short-range wireless technology enabling contactless data transfer between devices.
NFT (Non-Fungible Token): A unique digital asset representing ownership of a specific item or piece of content, typically using blockchain technology.
NGMI: "Not Gonna Make It," the pessimistic counterpart to WAGMI, often used to describe projects or strategies deemed likely to fail.
Node: A computer that participates in a blockchain network by maintaining a copy of the ledger and validating transactions.
Nonce: A number used once in cryptographic communication, crucial for transaction ordering and security.
Noobs: Newcomers to the cryptocurrency space, often used lightheartedly.
Normies: People not involved or interested in cryptocurrencies, a term used by enthusiasts.
NPC (Non-Player Character): Characters in the game that are not controlled by players but serve various roles in the game world.

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Web3 Glossary O-S

Octobear: A play on words combining "October" and "bear," as a counterpoint to the more popular concept of "Uptober" in the cryptocurrency world.
Off Ramp: Off-ramps refer to services or mechanisms that allow users to convert their digital assets (cryptocurrencies) back into traditional fiat currencies (like US dollars or euros).
Off-Chain Assets: Assets that exist outside the blockchain but can be brought on-chain as NFTs.
OG: Stands for Original Gangster and is used to refer to individuals or organizations that have been involved in the crypto space since its early days, often recognized for their pioneering contributions and extensive knowledge.
Ombudsman: An official appointed to investigate complaints against financial institutions or government services.
On Ramp: Crypto on-ramps allow users to enter the crypto ecosystem by exchanging their traditional fiat money for digital assets.
On-Chain: Referring to data or transactions that are recorded directly on the blockchain for transparency and security.
OP (Overpowered): Describes a character, weapon, or ability that is significantly stronger than others, often leading to imbalance in gameplay.
Operation Choke Point 2.0: Refers to an alleged coordinated effort by U.S. regulators and government agencies to restrict cryptocurrency companies' access to banking services and financial infrastructure. This initiative is seen as a modern version of the original Operation Choke Point from 2013-2017, which targeted certain industries deemed high-risk by pressuring banks to deny them services.
Optimistic Roll Up: Optimistic Rollups are Layer 2 blockchain scaling solutions that process transactions off-chain while posting only minimal data to the main chain, optimistically assuming all transactions are valid by default. If someone spots an invalid transaction, they can submit a fraud proof within a challenge period (typically 7 days) to reverse it and receive a reward, providing security while enabling much higher throughput and lower fees than Layer 1.
Oracle: A service that provides external data to smart contracts on a blockchain, bridging the gap between on-chain and off-chain information.
Oracle Problem: The Oracle Problem is the fundamental challenge in blockchain systems of ensuring that real-world data entering the blockchain is accurate and trustworthy, since the blockchain itself can only verify and secure data once it's already inside the system, not the accuracy of external inputs.
Ordinals: A method for inscribing data onto individual satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin) which essentially create digital artifacts that can be stored and transferred, similar to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on other blockchains.
OTC (Over-The-Counter): Trading that occurs directly between two parties rather than on a centralized exchange.
Outages: Periods when a network, exchange, or service is unavailable or non-functional.
P2E (Play-to-Earn): A gaming model where players can earn cryptocurrency or NFTs by participating in the game.
Paper Hands: The opposite of Diamond Hands, describing someone who sells their assets at the first sign of market turbulence.
Paper Wallet: A physical document containing a public address and private key for storing cryptocurrency offline.
Parallelized EVM: An enhanced version of the Ethereum Virtual Machine that can process multiple transactions simultaneously.
Permissionless Gaming: The ability to join and play blockchain games without requiring approval from a central authority (or your mum).
Permissionless: A characteristic of public blockchains where anyone can participate without needing approval from a central authority.
Perplexity: An AI-powered search engine and answering tool that uses large language models to provide real-time, cited information from the internet while maintaining transparency about its sources.
Perps: Perpetual futures contracts, a type of derivative in cryptocurrency trading.
Pesification: The forced conversion of USD-denominated assets to Argentine pesos during the 2001 economic crisis.
Ping: The latency between a player's device and the game server, measured in milliseconds.
Play to Airdrop: Participating in blockchain games or protocols to qualify for potential token airdrops.
Play-and-Own: A model where players truly own their in-game assets and can freely trade or sell them outside the game.
Player-Owned Economy: An economic system where players have true ownership and control over in-game assets and currencies.
Private Key: A secret code that allows access to and control over a cryptocurrency wallet and its contents.
Proof of Authority (PoA): A consensus mechanism where a set of pre-approved validators confirm transactions.
Proof of History (PoH): A verification method used by Solana to create a historical record that proves that an event occurred at a specific moment in time.
Proof of Humanity (PoH): A system for verifying that a user is a unique human, often used in blockchain voting or distribution systems.
Proof of Play: A mechanism to verify that a player has genuinely participated in gameplay.
Proof of Reserves: A verification system that allows users to confirm that a custodian holds the assets it claims.
Proof of Stake (PoS): A consensus mechanism where validators are randomly chosen to create new blocks from cryptocurrency owners who've "staked" their coins, giving them the right to validate new blocks of transactions and add them to the blockchain.
Proof of Work (PoW): A consensus mechanism where miners compete to solve complex mathematical problems to validate transactions and create new blocks.
Public Key: A cryptographic code that allows users to receive cryptocurrency into their accounts.
Pump and Dump: A scheme where the price of a cryptocurrency is artificially inflated through misleading statements to sell at a profit.
PvE (Player vs Environment): A game mode where players fight against computer-controlled opponents rather than other players.
PvP (Player vs Player): A mode where players compete against each other directly.
QE: Quantitative Easing, a monetary policy that tends to affect cryptocurrency markets positively. It involves the central bank purchasing government securities or other financial assets from the market in order to increase the money supply and encourage lending and investment. Interest rates will usually be lowered to further encourage economic activity.
QT: Quantitative Tightening, the opposite of QE, potentially negatively impacting risk assets like cryptocurrencies.
Quest Contract: Smart contracts that manage in-game missions and reward distribution.
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation): An AI framework that combines language models with external knowledge retrieval for more accurate responses.
Ragequit: When a player abruptly leaves a game due to frustration or anger, often after losing.
Rarity Tiers: Classification system for NFTs based on their scarcity.
Real World Assets (RWA): Traditional assets tokenized on blockchain networks.
Rekt: Slang for "wrecked," used to describe severe financial losses in crypto trading.
Rektember: A play on "September" and "rekt," referring to historically poor performance of crypto markets in September.
Restaking: Staking tokens that represent already-staked assets to earn additional yields.
Revoking: Withdrawing permission for a smart contract to access or spend one's tokens.
Reward Pool: A collection of tokens or assets set aside for incentives.
Risk-Off: A market condition where investors prefer safer assets, often negative for cryptocurrencies.
Risk-On: A market condition where investors are willing to take on more risk, often positive for cryptocurrencies.
Roadmap: A strategic plan outlining future goals and milestones for a cryptocurrency project.
ROI (Return on Investment): The ratio between the net profit and cost of an investment, used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment.
Rug Pull: A type of scam where developers abandon a project and run away with investors' funds.
Runes: A token standard proposed for the Bitcoin network, similar to Ordinals.
Sandwich attack: A type of front-running where an attacker places orders before and after a target transaction to profit from price movements.
Santa Rally: A period of increased buying activity in the crypto market around the Christmas holiday season leading to higher prices.
Satoshi: The smallest unit of Bitcoin, named after its pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
Scalability: The ability of a blockchain network to handle an increasing amount of transactions or users without significant performance degradation.
Scaling: The process of increasing a blockchain network's capacity to handle more transactions.
Scholarship: A system where asset owners lend their in-game items to other players for a share of earnings.
Seasonal NFTs: Limited-time collectibles tied to specific events or time periods.
Seed Capital: The initial funding used to start a business, typically provided before the first formal investment round.
Seed Investor: An early-stage investor who provides initial capital to a startup in exchange for equity.
Seed Phrase: A series of words used to access and recover a cryptocurrency wallet.
Self Custodial Wallet: A cryptocurrency wallet where the user has full control over their private keys and funds.
Self-sovereign identity (SSI): A digital identity model where individuals have complete control over their personal data and can selectively share verifiable credentials without relying on centralized authorities.
Ser: An intentional misspelling of "sir," commonly used in crypto communities as a playful form of address.
Shaken Out: When traders are forced to exit their positions due to market volatility or manipulation or do so because they lose their nerve.
Sharding: A scaling solution that involves splitting a blockchain network into smaller parts (shards) to increase transaction throughput. Not to be confused with Sharting, an altogether less desirable series of events.
Sharks: Considered mid-tier holders, with significant influence on market trends. Hold 500-1000 BTC or equivalent amounts of other cryptocurrencies.
Shill: To promote a cryptocurrency project, often aggressively or with potential bias.
Short Squeeze: A rapid price increase caused by short sellers rushing to buy back borrowed assets.
Short: A trading position that profits from a decrease in the price of a cryptocurrency.
Shrimps: Small-scale investors, often individual traders or new entrants to the market. Hold less than 10 BTC or equivalent amounts of other cryptocurrencies.
Sidechain: A separate blockchain that runs parallel to a main blockchain, often for improved scalability or functionality.
Skin NFT: Cosmetic items for characters or objects, represented as non-fungible tokens.
Skin: A cosmetic change to a character or item that does not affect gameplay but alters appearance.
Slashing: A blockchain security mechanism that penalizes validators by taking away (or "slashing") a portion of their staked tokens when they act maliciously or fail to maintain network standards.
Slippage: The difference between the expected price of a trade and the price at which the trade is executed.
SMA (Simple Moving Average): A widely used technical indicator in cryptocurrency trading that helps traders analyze price trends over a specified period. It is calculated by averaging the closing prices of an asset over a defined number of periods, providing a smoothed representation of price movements.
Smart Contract: Self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly written into code on a blockchain.
Smart Money: Investments made by experienced investors, institutional players, or market insiders who are considered well-informed.
Smart NFTs: Smart NFTs are an evolution of traditional NFTs that incorporate programmable functionality through smart contracts.
Smurf: An experienced player who creates a new account to play against less skilled opponents.
Snapshot: A record of the state of a blockchain at a specific point in time, often used for airdrops or governance.
Sniping: The practice of placing a bid or order at the last possible moment to gain an advantage.
SocialFi: The intersection of social media and decentralized finance.
Soulbound Token: A non-transferable NFT.
Sound Money: A currency with a stable value and resistant to manipulation, often used to describe Bitcoin.
Spoofing: The illegal practice of placing orders with no intention of executing them to manipulate market prices.
Stablecoin: A type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value, usually pegged to a fiat currency such as the US Dollar.
Staking: The process of participating in a blockchain network by holding and "locking up" a certain amount of cryptocurrency to support network operations, usually in return for yield.
Stop Loss: An order to sell a cryptocurrency when it reaches a certain price, limiting potential losses.
Sui-tember: A play on "September" and "Sui" referring to the price of the Sui token and the Sui blockchain ecosystem having a stellar September.
Support and Resistance: Support is the historic price level where there's likely to be buying interest strong enough to prevent the price from falling further. Conversely, resistance is the historic price level where there's likely to be enough selling pressure to prevent the price from increasing further.
Sybil: A type of attack where a single entity creates multiple identities to gain disproportionate influence in a network or to farm airdrops. Anti-Sybil techniques are often employed in connection to airdrops to prevent farming of those airdrops on an industrial scale.

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Web3 Glossary T-Z

TA (Technical Analysis): The study of price charts and patterns to predict future market movements.
Tank: A character designed to absorb damage and protect other players in a team setting. Often referred to as "meat shields" due to their role in drawing enemy fire away from more vulnerable characters, allowing them to deal damage or provide support without being targeted.
Testnet: A specialized blockchain environment designed for developers to experiment and test new features without the risks associated with a mainnet and allowing users to trial without risking real assets.
TGE: Token Generation Event, the creation and initial distribution of a new cryptocurrency.
The Gold Standard: A monetary system where the currency's value was directly linked to gold.
The Great Depression: The severe worldwide economic downturn that lasted from 1929 to 1941.
The Great Financial Crisis: Another term for the 2008 global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of the U.S. housing market.
The Kabal: A rumoured secret group of wealthy cryptocurrency investors working together to influence market prices.
The Merge: Ethereum's transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
The Nixon Shock: The 1971 series of economic measures by President Nixon that ended the gold standard in the United States.
The Trilemma: The challenge of achieving security, decentralization, and scalability simultaneously. Popularized by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, suggesting that blockchain networks can effectively optimize only two of these three attributes at any given time.
TLDR: "Too Long; Didn't Read," used to provide a brief summary of longer content.
TLDL: "Too Long; Didn't Listen," An occurrence usually taking place on a Monday morning when our CFO tells us about what he did at the weekend.
Token: A unit of value issued by a blockchain project, representing an asset or utility within the ecosystem.
Token Gating: Restricting access to certain exclusive content, features, experiences, or communities based on token ownership.
Token Standard: A set of rules that tokens on a particular blockchain must follow to ensure compatibility and interoperability.
Token Swap: Exchanging one type of token for another.
Tokenization: The process of converting real-world assets into digital tokens on a blockchain.
Tokenized Achievements: In-game accomplishments represented as blockchain tokens, potentially offering benefits across games.
Tokenized Characters: In-game characters represented as unique tokens on the blockchain.
Tokenomics: The economic model and incentive structures of a cryptocurrency project.
Total Supply: All coins that exist at a given time, including those that are circulating, locked, or reserved, but excluding those that have been burned.
TPS (Transactions Per Second): A measure of a blockchain's performance, indicating how many transactions it can process in one second.
Tradable Quests: Missions or tasks that can be bought, sold, or traded between players as NFTs.
TradFi: Traditional Finance, referring to conventional financial systems and institutions.
Trading Bot: An automated software program that executes trades based on predetermined criteria.
Trustless: A system design where participants don't need to trust each other or a central authority to operate safely.
TVL (Total Value Locked): The total amount of assets deposited in a DeFi protocol, often used as a metric for the protocol's popularity and usage.
UAW (Unique Active Wallets): A metric that counts the number of distinct blockchain addresses actively participating in transactions.
Ultra-Sound Money: A term used to describe Ether post-merge, suggesting it could become deflationary.
Unbanked: Individuals or groups without access to traditional banking services, often a target market for cryptocurrency adoption.
Unlock: The release of previously locked or vested tokens into circulation.
Unstaking: The process of removing staked tokens from a network or dAPP, often subject to a waiting period.
Uptober: A play on "October," referring to historically positive price performance in crypto markets during October.
Validator: A participant in a proof-of-stake network responsible for validating transactions and creating new blocks.
VCs (Venture Capitalists): Professional investors who provide funding to early-stage companies in exchange for equity.
Verifiable Randomness: Blockchain-based systems for ensuring fair and transparent random outcomes.
Vesting: A process where tokens are gradually released to investors or team members over a set period.
Virtual Land Parcel: A defined unit of digital real estate within a game world or metaverse.
Vitalik: While technically a name (Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum), it's often used as a catch-all term for a crypto genius or visionary.
VPNs: Virtual Private Networks, often used by the crypto community to preserve privacy, provide additional protection against hackers and allow users to bypass geo-restrictions and access content blocked in their region.
WAGMI: Acronym for "We're All Gonna Make It," an optimistic rallying cry in the crypto community expressing belief in future success.
Wall Street Crash: The stock market crash of October 1929 that marked the beginning of the Great Depression.
Wall Street Cheat Sheet: A popular chart depicting the emotional cycles of market psychology.
Wallet Integration: The process of connecting a player's cryptocurrency wallet to a game for transactions and asset management.
Wallet: A digital tool used to store, send, and receive cryptocurrencies.
Wash Trading: The illegal practice of simultaneously buying and selling the same asset to create artificial market activity.
Web 1: The early, read-only era of the internet focused on information consumption.
Web 2: The current interactive and social web, dominated by large tech companies.
Web 3: The concept of a decentralized internet built on blockchain technology, emphasizing user ownership and control of data and digital assets.
Wen: A deliberate misspelling of "when," often used humorously to ask about future events or price increases.
Wen Lambo: A humorous way of asking when a cryptocurrency's price will rise enough to afford a Lamborghini, symbolizing extravagant wealth.
Whale: An individual or entity that holds a large amount of a particular cryptocurrency, capable of influencing market prices. More precisely refers to holders of 1000+ Bitcoin or equivalent amounts of other cryptocurrencies.
White hat hacker: An ethical hacker who identifies and reports security vulnerabilities in blockchain systems.
Whitelist: A list of approved addresses eligible to participate in a token sale or NFT mint, often used to prevent bot activity.
Whitepaper: A document issued by a blockchain project that explains its technology, goals, and token economics.
Wrapped Token: A token that represents a cryptocurrency from one blockchain on another blockchain, allowing for interoperability. Most common examples are Wrapped Bitcoin or Wrapped Ether.
XP (Experience Points): Points earned to level up characters or unlock new abilities, commonly used in RPGs.
Yield Farming: The practice of staking or lending crypto assets to generate returns in the form of additional cryptocurrency.
YOLO: "You Only Live Once," used to describe high-risk, all-in investments or trades.
Zapper: A platform for managing and tracking DeFi investments across multiple protocols.
Zero-Knowledge Proof: A zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) is a cryptographic protocol that allows one party (the prover) to prove to another party (the verifier) that a statement is true without revealing any information beyond the validity of the statement itself.
zk-Rollup: A layer scaling solution that uses zero-knowledge proofs to increase transaction throughput and reduce gas fees on a blockchain.

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