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web3 Glossary

  • Airdrop — Airdrops are free collectibles or bonus NFTs offered by creators sent directly to a collector’s wallet address
  • Allowlist/Pre-launch/Pre-mint — A list of wallets who can access an NFT drop earlier than the rest of the public. Collectors on an allowlist have a greater chance of getting an NFT before they sell out
  • Alpha — The extra return on an investment from a crypto asset
  • Ape — Someone who invests heavily into a cryptocurrency or stock, usually through instinctual action
  • ATH — All time high price
  • ATL — All time low price
  • Asset — A digital piece of property that has value because it’s owned by others. In contrast to money, which isn’t property, has no value itself, can be used to pay any debts, and is regulated by a government body
  • Bot — A computer program programmed to automatically purchase NFTs. Created by heartless people who don’t like fairness or fun
  • Bearish — Negative sentiment about the market
  • Block — The latest group of transactions processed by the blockchain
  • Blockchain — A network of computers connected together performing the same action, keeping track of who owns what balance of assets. As a metaphor, a blockchain is group of accountants all double checking each others’ work, and keeping each other in check
  • Bridge — A protocol allowing separate blockchains to interact with one another, and tokens like NFTs to be transferred
  • Bullish — Positive sentiment about the market
  • Burn — To make a crypto token owned by no one, forever. Used by leaders in crypto to create actions on the blockchain and guarantee that they aren’t profiting from those actions
  • DAO — Decentralized Autonomous Organization. An organization that governs itself by the votes of its members instead of hierarchy
  • DeFi — Decentralized Finance. Finance that doesn’t need banks, is indifferent to country borders, and is operates on digital contracts that don’t require oversight or middle managers
  • Degen — Short for “degenerate gambler.” A term of endearment
  • Diamond hands — Implying that you are extremely bullish on a certain asset and will hold onto it without selling despite market volatility and risks
  • Drop The initial launch of a new collection or project
  • DYOR  Do your own research
  • Flipper — Someone who purchases NFTs at low costs and sells rapidly for a profit
  • Fiat — A currency established as legal tender, backed by the government such as the US Dollar
  • FOMO — Fear of missing out
  • FUD — Fear, uncertainty, doubt
  • Gas Fees associated with creating transactions on a blockchain
  • GM Good morning
  • GN Good night
  • HODL Hold on for dear life. Describes holders of assets that continue in their position despite volatility of the market or the price
  • JOMO — Joy of missing out
  • LFG – "Let’s fucking go!"
  • Minting — Creating an NFT and having it hosted in a smart contract on the blockchain
  • Moon Price going up fast
  • NGMI — “Not gonna make it”
  • Oracle — A bit of code that provides smart contract with external information between blockchains, or external information that resides on outside networks
  • Paper hands — Someone who sold a cryptocurrency or NFT as its price was failing
  • P2E Play to earn
  • PFP — Profile Picture
  • POS Proof of stake. Computers on a blockchain must prove that they have securely stashed away a large amount of the cryptocurrency in order to be part of the network
  • POW — Proof of work. Computers on a blockchain must solve complicated, energy-intensive puzzles in order to be part of the network
  • Private key — A long, impossible-to-guess passcode used to authorise changes to someone’s account. A user signs transactions using their private key, to prove that they authorize those transactions. The user who owns a private key can prove to others they are who they say they are, without giving away any other identifiers about them
  • Public key — Also known as a wallet address, is a way to direct transfers into one’s wallet,  similar to a bank account number. A public key is also used to identify who authorized transactions, and who owns what balance
  • Rug pull / Rugged — When you pull the rug on someone, you lure them in and then deceive them. Usually used when developers market a project to generate sales and then abandon it taking the profits
  • Ser “Sir”
  • Shilling — The act of heavily promoting and marketing your work. May be used as insult to suggest that the promoting is with reckless care and abandon
  • Smart Contract — A smart contract is a self-executing software program that runs autonomously and aims to automatically execute, enforce or document legally relevant events and actions according to the terms of an agreement between buyer and seller
  • Utility — A token that has a use case within some ecosystem
  • Value — the belief that someone else would want what you have for a certain price. Or that what you have can produce an outcome that itself can have value
  • Vaporware — marketing that promises product that has very little chance it’ll come about
  • WAGMI — “We’re all going to make it”
  • Web3 — The newest third-generation of internet. It’s characterised by services that are decentralised (not owned by governments or corporations), open (the code for how it works can be seen by anyone) and equalizing (services break free from traditionally elitist structures.) Previously, Web 2.0 was characterised by social networks with walled-off ecosystems dominated by singular monolith corporations
  • Wen drop — When is the NFT project going to launch?
  • Wen moon — When will the project price go up exponentially?