Web3 is filled with its own special language. It's one that, if you're new to the space, might feel a bit overwhelming. What's the difference between bearish and bullish? And why are there so many acronyms?! In this article you can find some of the more common terms you'll come across in Web3.
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A
- Airdrop (noun, verb) - when a company places their tokens directly into their users wallets
- Allowlist (noun) - a list of users or wallets who have permissions to access some function that is restricted from others
- Altcoin (noun) - new cryptocurrencies that have relatively low valuations
B
- Bear Market (noun) - an extended period of decline in the financial market
- Bearish (adjective) - holding a negative view of a market or asset’s value
- Bitcoin (noun) - the very first cryptocurrency created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, which is presumed to be a pseudonym
- Blockchain (noun) - distributed digital ledger where encrypted blocks of digital asset data are stored and chained together
- Block Explorer (noun) - an online tool used to view information on a blockchain, such as wallet addresses or transactions
- Bridge (noun) - an application that allows two or more separate blockchains to interact with one another, allowing users to send assets between them
- Bull Market (noun) - a period when share prices are rising
- Bullish (adjective) - holding a positive view of a market or asset’s value
- Burn (verb) - the process of removing a token from circulation, which is done by sending the asset to an inaccessible wallet address
C
- Coin (noun) - a single unit of currency that can be traded or exchanged
- Cold Wallet (noun) - an offline cryptocurrency wallet that is not connected to the internet in any way
- Cryptocurrency (noun) - a encrypted digital asset, built on the blockchain, to be used as a medium of exchange
D
- DAO / Decentralized Autonomous Organization (noun) - an organization controlled by its users and represented by open source code
- Dapp / Decentralized Application (noun) - a decentralized application that are secured on the blockchain
- DeFi / Decentralized Finance (noun) - a financial system built upon the blockchain, that does not rely on traditional financial institutions
- Diamond Hands (noun) - holding on to assets regardless of market volatility or instances of FUD
- DYOR / Do Your Own Research - in Web3, people should always conduct their own investigation on a product or asset before investing into it
E
- ETH (noun) - the native cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain
- Ethereum (noun) - a decentralized blockchain that allows users to write and execute smart contracts
F
- Fiat (noun) - currency declared to be legal tender by a government body
- FUD / Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt - a way to summarize negative sentiment about a project or asset; sometimes used as a tactic to put others at a disadvantage
- Fungible (adj) - able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable
G
- Gas (noun) - the fee paid by a user, which can vary based on network demand, to conduct a transaction or execute a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain
- Gwei (noun) - the smallest denomination of ETH and is used to measure gas prices
H
- HODL / Hold On for Dear Life - encouragement to not sell when prices drop
- Hot Wallet (noun) - a wallet that is connected to the internet in some way
L
- Layer 1 / L1 (noun) - the blockchain platform, the parent blockchain in a sense
- Layer 2 / L2 (noun) - solutions built on top of L1 meant to solve for scalability and efficiency
- LFG / Let's F*n Go! - an expression to show excitement in a project
- Liquidity (adj) - an economic term that indicates how easily an asset can be converted into another, such as cash
M
- MATIC (noun) - the native cryptocurrency on the Polygon blockchain
- Metadate (noun) - a set of data that describes and gives information about other data
- MetaMask (noun) - a software that functions as a hot wallet
- Metaverse (noun) - once, originally meant to describe a connected virtual world accessed via AR, is now used to describe the evolution of the internet
- Minting (verb) - creating a new token or digital asset on the blockchain, that once completed, cannot be altered
N
- NFT / Non-Fungible Token (noun) - an on-chain asset with unique identifiers that cannot be altered or replicated
- NGMI / Not Gonna Make It - the belief or implication that a certain asset will not reach a high valuation, or suggestion that someone made a poor decision in their investing
P
- Paper Hands (noun, adj.) - used to describe someone who is risk-averse and sells at the first sign of trouble
- PFP / Profile Picture (noun) - not meant in the traditional sense, but an NFT used as a profile picture
- Polygon (noun) - A layer 2 blockchain
- Private Key (noun) - an alphanumeric code, which is often very long, that must be entered by a user to access a wallet; also referred to as a seed phrase
- Public Key (noun) - a public identifier for an on-chain account; also a wallet address
S
- Scalability (adj) - an ability for a platform to support a higher transaction load as a network grows
- Smart Contract (noun) - a self-executing contract formed on the blockchain with pre-defined rules the allow transactions to occur without additional oversight
- Stablecoin (noun) - a token whose value is tied to another asset, such as fiat or other cryptocurrencies
T
- Token (noun) - a digital asset, fungible or non-fungible, that is created on the blockchain
- Txn Hash / Transaction Hash (noun) - a unique identifier that helps locate and verify a transaction on the block chain, searchable using a block explorer
W
- WAGMI / We're All Gonna Make It - a phrase used to indicate togetherness and optimism
- Wen? / When (adv) - used as a way to to ask when something significant will occur with a project
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