AI
A computer program that simulates aspects of human intelligence but focuses on a single, specific function. Narrow AI is also known as focused artificial intelligence (AI) in distinction to AGI.

Airdrop
in the crypto world, an airdrop is a free distribution of tokens or coins from a company directly into its users’ or members’ wallets.

Altcoins
or alts, are cryptocurrencies that are relatively new to the market and have relatively low valuations. A conjoining of the words ‘alternative’ and ‘coin,’ the term ‘altcoin’ initially was used to refer to any cryptocurrency that wasn’t Bitcoin.

AML
(Anti-Money Laundering) - a set of international laws enacted to diminish the potential for criminal organizations or individuals to launder money. These rules and laws are applied to cryptocurrencies with varying effects in different jurisdictions.

Augmentation
the action or process of making or becoming greater in size or amount

ATH- All Time High
the highest price an asset has ever had.

ATL- All Time Low
the lowest price an asset has ever had.

Bear Market
a prolonged period of decline in a financial market.

Bull Market
a period where market prices are rising.

Bitcoin
is at the time of writing the most valuable cryptocurrency in the world. It was also the world’s very first cryptocurrency, postulated by ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ (which is typically presumed to be a pseudonym) in a now-famous white paper called ‘A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’ in 2008.

Blockchain
A ‘blockchain’ is a distributed digital ledger that’s used to record transactions. It’s an immutable database, which means that information can’t be tampered with or altered once it’s been recorded. If there’s an error in an entry, then a new, revised entry must be made, and both entries will subsequently be visible on the ledger.

Bridge
in a web3 context, is a protocol which links blockchain systems together, allowing users from one system to send assets and information to another.

To burn
an NFT for example is effectively to send it into oblivion, the closest thing to destroying it completely. Nothing that’s been coded on the blockchain can be deleted, so anyone who wants to delete (burn) an NFT has to send it to a smart contract that nobody can access.

CBDC
Central Bank Digital Currencies — CBDCs for short — are digital fiat currencies, or digital cash.
CBDCs are held by the public at the central bank in individual bank accounts

CEX
a cryptocurrency exchange managed by a centralized business or entity.
i.e. Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken

Cliff
represent the period of time that must pass before the release of the tokens starts.

Consensus Mechanisms
a process through which nodes on a blockchain come into agreement on a transaction or state of the network. See: Proof of Work, Proof of Stake

Cryptography
A word derived from the Greek ‘kryptos’ meaning ‘hidden’ – this is the process of using mathematics to encode and protect sensitive information from malicious actors.

Crypto winter
is a period of steep decline within the cryptocurrency market, resulting in the loss of huge sums of money for some investors.

Cold wallet
A wallet that is offline, hardware, or paper, not connected to the internet in any way and usually air-gapped.

DAO
A Decentralized Autonomous Organization, colloquially referred to as a ‘DAO,’ is an organization that is controlled by its members and not subject to the authority of any single individual or entity. Unlike a traditional corporation or government, they are completely free of hierarchical, top-down structures. Its codes of conduct are recorded on a blockchain to ensure transparency and decentralization. Participation in a DAO is usually accessed through the acquisition of a digital token.

Dapp
A decentralized application, colloquially called a dapp, is an application constructed on the blockchain. Dapps function autonomously, according to the stipulations in smart contracts. Like any other application on your phone, dapps come with a user interface and are designed to provide some kind of practical utility.

Decentralized system
is one that’s controlled in equal measure by each of its constituent parts. Blockchains – the technological framework for web3 – are decentralized, meaning that no single individual, corporation or other entity is able to exert a disproportionate degree of control over how they are constructed and run.

DeFi
Decentralized finance, or DeFi, refers to a financial system built upon the blockchain, and therefore fully distributed and not subject to any centralized authority, such as a bank, government agency or financial management firm.

Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dBFT)
is a sophisticated algorithm meant to facilitate consensus on a blockchain. Although it is not in common use as of yet, it represents an alternative to simpler proof of stake, proof of importance and proof of work methods.

DEX
Decentralized Exchange, an on-chain program for buying, selling, trading, or swapping on-chain assets.

ERC-20
Ethereum Request for Comments 20 -a fungible token standard used for creating and issuing smart contracts solely on the Ethereum blockchain.  

Ethereum
A decentralized blockchain network built by Vitalik Buterin in 2015. The open-source network is home to its native cryptocurrency, also called Ethereum but more commonly known simply as Ether or ETH (there’s some debate about whether it’s pronounced ‘eth’ or ‘eeth’). The Ethereum platform also gave rise to smart contracts – a subject we’ll dive into another week. As of March, ETH is the second most-valuable cryptocurrency in the world, after Bitcoin.

Ethereum 2.0 (or "Eth2").
The upgraded Ethereum blockchain that was created after the platform switched from a a Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism — a transition that was known as “the Merge” — in September 2022. According to Ethereum, the term Eth2 “is being phased out in favor of more precise terminology” — namely “consensus layer.”

Fiat money
Not to be confused with the car brand, fiat money is a term used to refer to any kind of currency that has been declared legal tender by a government body. (The declaration itself is often called a fiat.) Fiat money isn’t backed by any intrinsically valuable commodity, such as precious metals like gold and silver. Instead, the value of fiat money is determined by the fluctuations of supply and demand. Paper money, like the US dollar, is fiat money.

Fiat money is subject to an economic force called ‘variable supply,’ which means the governing body that issued the fiat can control its value by tweaking a variety of levers, such as the adjustment of interest rates. Cryptocurrency, which is not subject to the authority of any centralized authority, is often positioned as the opposite of fiat money.

“Floor price”
refers to the lowest price for which a product or service can sell at an auction. This is a common phrase to encounter on NFT auction platforms, such as OpenSea.'

Fork
a change to a blockchain’s protocol. When these changes are minor, this results in a soft fork. When the changes are more fundamental, this may result in a hard fork, leading to the formation of a separate chain with different rules.

Fungibility
A term used in economics to refer to a commodity that is precisely equal in value and therefore exchangeable with other identical versions of that same commodity. A $1 bill, for example, is fungible, because it can be exchanged for any other $1 bill – they have the same value and therefore, for all intents and purposes, are identical.

Gas
In the context of web3, gas refers to a fee that’s required in order to execute a smart contract or transaction on Ethereum blockchain. Gas, which is often denominated in a very tiny fraction of an ETH called a WEI, is paid to node operators, AKA miners.

HODL
is a common acronym used in the crypto space, which stands for ‘hold on for dear life.’ It’s typically invoked at times when the crypto market is undergoing some dramatic fluctuations and investors are feeling nervous, as in: “Don’t sell just yet, the markets will recover and your investments will bounce back if you just HODL.”

Hot Wallet
A wallet that is networked or connected to the internet in some way (mobile, web).

ICO
Initial Coin Offering -the selling of tokens to the public in order to raise capital for a crypto-based project . ICOs are a crowdfunding approach, similar to a traditional company’s IPO.

IDO
Initial decentralized exchange offering is a way of raising financing for a blockchain project by launching a token sale on a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange.

IEO
Initial Exchange Offering - similar to an initial coin offering, or ICO, an initial exchange offering is a method of selling tokens to raise capital, but with increased regulation. Unlike an ICO, which sells new tokens directly to the public, an IEO is managed by an existing cryptocurrency exchange. By working with a known and trusted exchange, IEOs seek to make the ICO process more secure.

Interoperability,
in web3-speak, refers to the ability of multiple blockchains to cooperate and exchange information with one another, enabling virtual assets (such as non-fungible tokens [NFTs]), avatars and other pieces of code to move seamlessly from one platform to another.

KYC
Know your customer - a process in which a business must verify the identity and background information (address, financial details, etc.) of their customers. For example, current regulations and laws require banks and other financial institutions to keep and report customers’ personal information and transactions.

Layer 1
(L1) blockchains are the foundations of multi-level blockchain frameworks. They can facilitate transactions without support from other blockchain networks. All layer 1 blockchains – including Bitcoin and Ethereum – offer their own native cryptocurrency as a means of accessing their networks.

Layer 2
(L2) blockchains are built on top of layer 1 blockchains, often enhancing the latter’s performance and expanding its accessibility. Polygon, for example, is a popular layer 2 blockchain that allows users to enjoy the benefits of using the Ethereum network without having to go through that network’s relatively slow transaction speed and costly fees.

Liquidity
is a term used in economics to describe the degree to which an asset can be converted into either cash or some other asset.

MetaMask
is a software built for the Ethereum blockchain that functions as a crypto wallet.

Metaverse
‘The metaverse’ is not synonymous with ‘web3.’ The former is the virtual landscape that’s accessible via VR technology, whereas the latter is a term that’s commonly used to describe the next evolutionary stage of the internet. ‘Web3’ is inclusive of blockchain, cryptocurrency, the metaverse and other emergent technologies.

Mining
in a Proof of Work system, this is the process of verifying transactions, organizing them into blocks, and then adding blocks to the blockchain. Participants who perform this process are called miners.

Minting
is a term used to describe the process of registering a digital asset on the blockchain, thereby turning it into a purchasable NFT. Once an NFT has been minted, given the nature of the blockchain it cannot be altered. Minting NFTs on the blockchain requires a vast amount of energy, which has led many to criticize the blockchain and its proponents.

NFT
A non-fungible token, or NFT, is a collection of data stored on a blockchain that is non-interchangeable – in other words, it can’t be replicated into multiple copies of equal value in the same way that, say, US quarters can be replicated and exchanged with one another. (See definition for ‘fungible’ above.)

Off-chain transactions
do not take place on a blockchain network, but they can subsequently be incorporated into a blockchain. The parties to off-chain transactions must consent to use an intermediary third-party to validate the transaction. (Note: “Off-chain” can also refer to data that exists separately from the blockchain.)

On-chain transactions
are executed, verified and recorded on a blockchain network. Once completed, the record of these transactions is viewable for all members of the associated blockchain network. (Note: “On-chain” can also refer to data that exists on the blockchain.)

P2P
Peer-to-peer, or P2P, is a term used to describe a network of individual computers exchanging information with one another without the oversight of a central server. Management of a P2P network is distributed among its constituent computers.

Private key
in crypto-speak, is an alphanumeric code that must be entered by a user in order to access one’s wallet or authorize an exchange of blockchain-based assets or currency.

Proof of space-time (PoST)
is a proof that shows the prover has spent an amount of time keeping the reserved space unchanged. Its creators reason that the cost of storage is inextricably linked not only to its capacity, but to the time in which that capacity is used.

Proof of Stake
or PoS, is a system for validating transactions and establishing new blocks in the blockchain. It’s a consensus-based mechanism, with each validator’s role in the process being directly proportional to the size of their stake in the cryptocurrency that’s involved in the transaction.

Proof of Time (PoT)
is a consensus algorithm that uses a voting system to choose network validators and focuses on how long a network validator has been active within the network as well as its reputation.

Proof of Work
or PoW, is another system for establishing consensus and building new blocks in the blockchain. A PoW mechanism requires each participant in a cryptographic process to submit proof that they have expended a certain amount of contributory computational effort.

Public key
is an alphanumeric code that’s connected with a particular wallet. Analogous to a bank account number, a public key is a code that other users would input to send assets directly into your wallet.

Pump and dump
a scheme where a cryptocurrency or other asset is hyped up, leading many to buy into it, raising its price. Those who did the hyping then sell their holdings of the asset as the price rises for a short period of time. This then leads to a sharp selloff where anyone who did not sell suffers a loss. 

Seed Phrase
A string of words used as a master password to access a crypto wallet. Because a single wallet can contain multiple accounts, all with their own private keys, a seed phrase makes it easy to access them all with the same password. 

Smart contracts
are blockchain-based computer programs that are designed to automatically go into effect as soon as the parties privy to the contract have fulfilled their respective obligations. Once they’ve been coded and their terms have been agreed upon, they become fully automated, which negates the need for any facilitating third party. Because they’re built upon the blockchain, transactions made via smart contracts can be closely monitored – but can’t be tampered with after the fact – by the parties involved.

Stablecoin
is a cryptocurrency with a value that is "pegged" — that is, programmed to fluctuate in lockstep — with that of a financial instrument, commodity or another currency. USD Coin (USDC), for example, is a stablecoin pegged to the value of the US dollar.

Staking
The process of locking digital assets on-chain, usually in exchange for earning some type of incentive (e.g. interest, token yield, etc.). Staking often comes with some type of risk--in proof-of-stake, validators' stake is at risk if the validator confirms illegitimate transactions.

Tokenomics
a blending of the words ‘token’ and economics, is an umbrella term that refers to all of the various qualities of a virtual currency that can cause its market value to fluctuate.

Vesting
represents a process in which assets (usually tokens) are locked and released over a period of time.

Wallet
A crypto wallet is an application that stores and protects the keys to blockchain-based assets and accounts. (See definitions for ‘private key’ and ‘public key’ above.)

WEB2
starting in the 90s, the “read-write web” is characterized by user-generated content and improved user interfaces. This led to the creation of blogs and social media platforms, as well as sites like Wikipedia and YouTube. Web2 placed more emphasis on user experience and interoperability between different applications and websites, giving us the vast network of connected websites and resources that we are familiar with today. 

WEB3
the next iteration of the web being ushered in as we speak, which leverages blockchain technology, open-source applications, and the decentralization of data and information. Web3 aims to remove control of the web from monopolistic tech companies, and return ownership of data and content to its users. Also referred to as the “read-write-trust web.”

Whitepaper
A document released by a crypto project or developer that provides prospective investors with information on the concept, purpose, technical information, growth plans, and success strategies.