Skip to main content

Glossary

A world filled with unicorns, long acronyms, and slang.

A​

  • Aggregation - In the context of blockchain, NFT aggregators gather listings from multiple marketplaces and platforms into one place. This provides buyers with a simplified interface to compare prices and acquire NFTs from ddifferent sources.

  • API - helps services & products to talk to each other & use each other’s data & functionality through a documented interface.

  • Array - a sequence of things referenced by consecutive integers.

B​

  • Bearish - speculating a downwards trajectory or decrease in price or morale. Skeptical outlook on charts, markets, & life. See also: Bullish

  • Blockchain - a blockchain is a cryptographic shared database or ledger. See also: Ethereum, Modular

  • Block Explorer - a tool for browsing information on a blockchain, such as transactions, wallet addresses, market caps, & hash rates. See also: Etherscan, Transactions, Wallet, Wallet Address

  • Bullish - speculating a upwards trajectory or increase in price or morale, markets, & life. See also: Bearish

C​

  • Centralized - controlled by a single authority or managed in one place. See also: Decentralized

  • CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) - a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML

  • Component - independent and reusable bits of code. A recognizable portion of a larger construction.

  • Composable - the ability to combine existing components and reassemble them to create new products. See also: Aggregation

D​

  • DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization - an organization based on open-source code & governed by its users. See also: Open-source, Zora

  • dApp (Decentralized Application) - an application built atop code that lives on the blockchain, existing independent of centralization & often incentivizes users to maintain them through rewards. See also: Blockchain, Centralization, Open-source

  • Data (in the context of the internet) - a user’s personal information. ASL, interests, browsing history, device usage, purchasing habits, etc. web3 aims to protect this & give ownership of it back to the user. See also: Web1, Web2, web3

  • Decentralized - controlled by several nodes or authorities rather than one single point of failure, a distributed peer-to-peer network. See also: Centralized, Ethereum

  • Deploy/Deployed - term for rolling out an application.

  • Directory - a digital catalog able to reference other files & directories. See also: Blockchain

  • DYOR (Do Your Own Research) - slang for Due Diligence, is used to remind people to use their own search bar, & conduct their own investigation into an X before Y'ing in it. “I’m very bullish on this, but obviously DYOR.” See also: Bullish

E​

  • ENS (Ethereum Name Service) - a distributed, open, & updatable domain naming system based on the Ethereum blockchain. (.eth) See also: Blockchain, DAO, Ethereum, Open-source

  • ERC (Ethereum Request for Comments) - the standard smart contract outline upon which Ethereum-based smart contracts are built. The convention for differentiating standards sees an integer following the acronym. See also: Ethereum, Smart Contract

  • ERC-20 the Ethereum token standard, providing a standardized smart contract structure for fungible tokens.
    See also: Ethereum, Fungible, Smart Contract, Token

  • ERC-721 - an Ethereum token standard that allows for the formation of unique tokens, NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. Unlike the ERC-20 standard, ERC-721 tokens have specific properties that allow for unique & independent ID & value. See also: ERC-20, Ethereum, Fungible, NFT, Non-fungible, Token

  • ERC-1155 - an Ethereum token standard which allows for fungible, non-fungible, & semi-fungible tokens to be managed by a single smart contract simultaneously. Commonly used in gaming & collectibles. See also: Ethereum, Fungible, Smart Contract, Token

  • Ethereum, ETH - a public blockchain created by Vitalik Buterin (Vitamin Buttermilk) serving as the foundation for dApps. Previously a democracy under the Proof of Work mechanism, presently operating under Proof of Stake. See also: Blockchain, dApp, Protocol

  • Ethers.js - the ethers.js library aims to be a complete & compact library for interacting with the Ethereum Blockchain & ecosystem. See also: Ethereum, Blockchain

  • Etherscan - ethereum's most popular block explorer. See also: Black Explorer, Ethereum

F​

  • Factory - in the context of blockchain, a factory is a smart contract that deploys other smart contracts.

  • Fork - a change to code. Minor change = soft fork. Fundamental changes = hard fork, the latter leading to the formation of a separate chain with different rules. See also: Blockchain, Hard-fork, Soft-fork, Protocol

  • Fungible - interchangeable; exchangeable with something else of the same value. See also: Non-fungible

G​

  • Gas - a fee paid by a user to conduct a transaction or execute a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain. Fee is dependent upon the transaction’s complexity & the current demand on the network. See also: Blockchain, Ethereum, Gwei, Smart Contract, Transaction

  • gm - simply meaning “good morning,” gm is a common greeting used in crypto circles, it's usage is often used as a measure of participation on Discord.

  • Goerli - a community-based proof-of-authority Ethereum testnet. Allows web3 devs to test smart contracts on the Goerli testnet for free using faux ETH. See also: Ethereum, Smart Contract, Testnet, web3

  • Gwei - the smallest fraction/denomination of ether used as the unit of measure for Ethereum gas prices. 10^9 gwei = 1 ether. See also: Ethereum, Gas, Wei

H​

  • Hooks - these provide a more confrontational API to React components(props, state, context, refs, lifecycle) See also: API, Component, React

  • Hyperstructure - unstoppable, free, valuable, expansive, permissionless, positive sum, & credibly neutral. Hyperstructures See also: Decentralized, Open-source, Zora

I​

  • Immutable - an immutable object is an object whose state cannot be modified after it is created. See also: Blockchain, Mutable

K​

  • Key - an alphanumeric code. In web3, one has 2 keys: a public key which is an address to the wallet, & a private key, which allows you to access your assets. See also: Public key, Private key, Wallet, web3

M​

  • Mainnet - short for main network, this is a main layer 1 blockchain, as opposed to a testnet or layer 2 solution. See also: Blockchain, Ethereum, Testnet

  • Mint -

  • Modular - the degree to which a system's components may be separated & recombined. Modular blockchains are the result of separating core components of a single blockchain & running them on separate layers. See also: Blockchain, Component

  • Mutable - the internal state of an object is inconsistent, fickle, & changeful. See also: Immutable

  • Merge - in the context of Git, combining code. Also, the name of the event when Ethereum changed from using Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). (Where were you September 14, 2022?) Github Merge See also: Forked, Ethereum

N​

  • NFT (Non-fungible token) - irreplaceable. A digital certificate of authenticity used to assign & verify ownership of a unique digital/physical asset. Unlike fungible tokens, NFTs aren't interchangeable with one another. See also: ERC-721, Fungible, Non-fungible

  • Non-fungible - unique; not interchangeable. See also: Fungible, NFT

  • NPM (Node Package Manager) - a package manager for the JavaScript programming language.

    • NVM (Node Version Manager) - a version manager for the JavaScript programming language.
  • Next/Next JS - a customizable framework of React that provides the skeleton for developing dynamic web apps. See also: NPM, React, Web1, Web 2, web3

O​

  • Open-source - code that is open & free for all. You can modify & redistribute until you're blue in the face. See also: Deploy/Deployed, Ethereum, Issue, Merge, Protocol, Zora

P​

  • PFP - profile picture, usually referring to one of an NFT. See also: NFT, Wallet

  • Private Key - encrypted string of letters and numbers that is used to authorize digital transactions. Used in order to withdraw the digital assets a the wallet. One doesn’t share it with anyone, thus - ‘private’. See also: Public Key, Seed phrase, Wallet

  • Protocol - this sets the foundational layer of a blockchain. Generally used to refer to both layer 1 & layer 2 blockchain networks & app built atop them — Ethereum, Zora, Uniswap are all protocols.
    See also: Ethereum, Open-source, Protocol, Zora

  • Public Key - think checking/savings account number. An alphanumeric key that serves as an address for your wallet. As one needs to share it with the public, unlike a private key, it is ‘public’. See also: Private Key, Wallet Address

  • Pull Request (PR) - a request to have changes merged into a repository or project on Git. Proposed changes could be as simple as fixing a minor typo, or as complex as adding 1000s of lines of code to multiple files x_x. See also: Merge

R​

  • React - an open-source Javascript library used for building user interfaces.

  • Repository - a data structure that stores metadata for a set of files or directory. See also: Deploy/Deployed, Issue, Merge

S​

  • Seed Phrase - a string of words used as a master password to access a crypto wallet. A single wallet can contain multiple accounts, all with their own private keys, so a seed phrase makes it easy to access them all with the same password. See also: Private Key, Wallet

  • Smart Contract - self-executing code deployed on a blockchain. These allow transactions to be made without an intermediary figure & without the parties involved having to trust one another. See also: Blockchain

  • Solidity - the native programming language of Ethereum, mainly used to write smart contracts. See also: Ethereum, Smart Contract

  • SWR (Stale-While-Revalidate) - a directive allows a Content Delivery Network to serve an expired asset to a client, while it revalidates the file in the background.

T​

  • Testnet - a software environment that mimics a mainnet blockchain, used to test network upgrades & smart contracts before deploying them to the mainnet. See also: Blockchain, Deploy/Deployed, Goerli, Mainnet, Smart Contract

  • TLD (Top Level Domain) - the last segment of a domain name, or the part that follows immediately after the "dot" symbol. i.e. .xyz .com. See also: ENS, Ethereum

  • Token - unlike a coin, a token is a digital asset created on an existing blockchain. Tokens can be used to represent digital & physical assets, or used to interact with dapps. NFTs can be referred to as tokens. See also: Blockchain, NFT

  • Token-gate - this allows one to gate & gain access to experiences IRL & in the digital world based on your digital assets — tokens & NFTs alike. Think web3-native authorization/access control. See also: NFT, Token, web3

  • Transaction (Txn) - data written to a blockchain. New Txns are verified by nodes on the network, then broadcast to other nodes. Once a verification quota has been it's considered valid & added to a block. See also: Blockchain

  • Transaction Hash (Txn Hash) - short for transaction ID. A unique identifier used to represent a specific transaction, written as a long string of letters & numbers. Pasting this into a block explorer, like Etherscan, you find the details of said transaction. See also: Block Explorer, Etherscan, Transaction

V​

  • Vercel - platform for frontend developers, speedy & reliable. Good for quick iteration, development, preview, & shipment. See also: Deploy/Deployed

W​

  • WAGMI - short for "We're All Gonna Make It", OR plugin package for development. See also: wagmi, gm

  • Wallet - a software app or hardware device used to store the private keys to blockchain assets & accounts. Doesn't actually store the tokens themselves, but the private key (MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Rainbow Wallet). See also: Blockchain, Private Key, Protocol

  • Wallet Address - a publicly available code or a public key of your blockchain wallet, think checking/savings account number if compared to the fiat world. See also: Blockchain, Public Key, Wallet

  • Wei - small denomination of ETH. Basically imperceptible, digital dust. Really only used for technical cases and writing code. See also: Ethereum, Gas, Gwei

  • Web1 - this was “read-only web.” Username: __ | Password: __

  • Web2 - this is “read-write web”. Think blogs & social media. Sign in with Google | Sign in with Facebook | Sign in with Twitter

  • Web3 - this is “read-write-trust web.” The next iteration of the web being ushered in as we speak, leveraging blockchain. Connect with Wallet See also: Wallet

Z​

  • ZORA - tools for collective imagination See also: DAO, Decentralized, NFT, Protocol