📖The NFT glossary

Your quick and practical guide for all NFT-related definitions

A

Address | The identification of a sender or receiver of a cryptocurrency transaction on the blockchain. Addresses are derived from private and public keys of a user. For example, "0xb794f5ea0ba39494ce839613fffba74279579268" is an address on Ethereum.

Airdrop | An event where certain users will receive free tokens for holding onto certain types of assets for a moment of time. Often a surprise and unknown to users.

B

Bear Market | A bear market is one that is in decline having fallen 20% or more from recent highs.

Blockchain | The Blockchain is often defined as an online ledger where everyone has access to records and transactions. It is transparent and immutable.

Bookkeeping | Term used to describe the action of keeping records of financial affairs within a business.

Booming | Term used to describe periods of rapid economic growth or great prosperity. It is commonly used within the NFT space when a certain project, artist, currency, etc. is thriving rapidly.

Bored Ape Yacht Club | The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is a collection of 10,000 NFTs. Each Bored Ape has unique traits, with some traits being rarer than others. The NFT collection was created by Yuga Labs in 2021.

Breadcrumbs | A digital trail on the blockchain reflecting the history of transactions.

Bull Market | A bull market is a market that is on the rise and where the conditions of the economy are generally favorable for buying.

Burning | An expression used to refer to the action where you send an NFT to an empty address in order to destroy it or get rid of it. Since the blockchain is immutable, NFTs cannot be destroyed permanently, but "burning" them allows to prevent any future transfers or access.

C

Collectible | Assets or items that will have value because of their rarity. Most collectible projects have a limit of items available. For example, there are only 10,000 Bored Apes NFTs.

Cryptocurrency | A type of digital currency that is stored on the Blockchain, such as Bitcoin, or Ether.

CryptoPunks | A non-fungible token collection on the Ethereum blockchain launched in June 2017 by the Larva Labs studio. Often criticized because it does not use the ERC-721 standard.

D

DAO | An acronym that stands for "Decentralized Autonomous Organization", which represents an organization where rules are encoded as a computer program which is transparent, controlled by all of the organization members and not influenced by a central authority or government.

dApps | Short for "Decentralized applications", meaning applications that run on decentralized networks.

Decentralized | Used to described an organization or activity where control and decisions are made by a distributed network rather than a central authority.

Decentralized exchange | Exchanges that allow peer-to-peer transactions, without the need of a middle-men.

DeFi | An acronym for "Decentralized Finance", where the need for intermediaries (banks, brokers, exchanges) is eliminated by using blockchains and smart contracts.

Digital signature | A string of data a user produces using his private key so that anyone who has the corresponding public key, the signature, and the document can verify that the transaction was "signed" by the owner of that particular private key, and it was not changed after it was signed.

Distributed network | A distributed computing network system where data depends on multiple sources and is stored on distributed locations across the network, increasing its safety.

Down the rabbit hole 🕳️🐇| A metaphor used to describe something that transports you into a wonderful and surreal world. This expression is used in the crypto art community when curiosity leads you to fall down the rabbit hole of crypto, NFTs, blockchain, DAOs and Web 3, a world that feels surrealist because users and creators are empowered. This expression originates from the movie "Alice in Wonderland", adapted by Walt Disney Studios.

E

ENS | ENS stands for "Ethereum Name Service", a platform that allows you to name your wallet address differently than "0x........................................", making it easier and more accessible to transact in crypto with other people.

Etherscan | Etherscan is an Ethereum blockchain explorer and analytics platform that tracks when gas is at its lowest. It allows you to review details of the Ethereum block such as prices, addresses, tokens, transaction details and other information.

ERC-1155 | is a novel Ethereum standard that stands for “Ethereum Request for Comments 1155”. It allows efficient transfers between a fungible and non-fungible token within a single transaction.

ERC-20 | is an Ethereum standard that stands for “Ethereum Request for Comments 20”. It is a set of rules that all Ethereum-based tokens must follow used for token implementation on all smart contracts in the blockchain. It is essentially a standard for fungible tokens.

ERC-721 | is an Ethereum standard that stands for “Ethereum Request for Comments 721”. It introduced an open standard interface for NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. What this implied is that this type of token was meant to be unique, and capable of having a different value than other tokens (contrarily to fungible tokens, such as Bitcoin).

Exchange | Used to trade, purchase or sell crypto assets. Examples of exchanges are Coinbase or Binance.

F

Fiat | A term used to refer to regular currencies like CAD, USD, Euro.

Fungible | A term used to describe assets that are interchangeable by another item of identical value. For example, money is an interchangeable asset since it is possible to make an exchange between two currencies as they hold the same value.

G

Gas | An amount of cryptocurrency required to perform any transaction on the Blockchain. On the Blockchain, every action, such as buying an asset or transferring cryptocurrencies includes fees, which we call gas, to pay for the energy that must be deployed to operate the transaction.

Gas Fee | A payment that an individual has to make in order to complete a transaction on the blockchain and it is used to compensate for the computing power used to verify blockchain transactions.

Gas Tracker | A service showing the most affordable times to transact. Tip: Look for gas tracker to go below 100.

GM / GN | Greeting acronyms standing for "good morning" and "good night". Used by members of the community to greet each other, spreading positivity and communication within social media platforms.

I

Listing | The action of making an NFT available to the public for purchase.

IPFS | IPFS stands for "InterPlanetary File System", a distributed system for storing and accessing files, websites, applications, and data. IPFS can be used to store data related to NFTs, such as the link to where they were minted.

L

Ledger | A register of financial accounts of a specific type. In the NFT space, it is a secure gateway for storing, viewing, managing and enjoying the full property of your NFTs.

Minting | The creation process of an NFT, i.e. uploading it onto the platform where it will be sold or offered.

Listing | The action of making a NFT available to the public for purchase.

M

Mainnet | Short for "main network," this is the principal public Ethereum blockchain. It is also known as "layer 1" when discussing scaling solutions.

Metadata | Data that describes relevant information about other data. Within the NFT space, it provides the NFT’s essential properties, details and anything its creator feels relevant to know.

Metaverse | A network of virtual worlds focused on social connection, where interactions are facilitated by the use of virtual and augmented reality technologies.

Minting | The creation process of a NFT, i.e. uploading it onto the platform where it will be sold or offered.

N

NFT | The term "NFT" stands for "non fungible token", a non-interchangeable token stored on a blockchain. It can represent a certificate of ownership for any type of asset, and was introduced by the ERC-721 standard.

Non-Fungible | A term used to describe assets that are not interchangeable and that hold a unique value. For example, two paintings cannot be exchanged as each one holds a unique value.

O

Oracle | An oracle is a bridge between the blockchain and the real world. They act as a set of definitions for how to use the software that can be referred to for information and used in smart contracts.

P

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) | A person to person method of transacting, meaning you don't require the assistance of an intermediary.

Private key | Your password to enter your wallet and access your tokens stored on the blockchain. Always keep it in a safe place and NEVER share it with anyone!

Proof-of-Stake | A different way to verify cryptocurrency transactions, where you will be rewarded with tokens if you hold on to them for a certain moment. Just like mining, this process also requires some computing power and electricity usage, but to a lesser extent than Proof-of-Work method.

Proof-of-Work | The classic way for verifying cryptocurrency transactions, where miners must solve hashing problems. This method is what makes blockchain so secure, since hackers would need need over 51% of all computing power available worldwide to hack a blockchain or transaction.

Public key | Contrarily to private keys, it’s a cryptographic key that allows other people to see your wallet, tokens or NFTs. It does not need to be kept private because it doesn't allow other people to access your tokens. Public keys exist because the blockchain is a transparent technology.

R

Rug Pull | A rug pull happens when a scam of a crypto token is being promoted on social media. After the price of the token has gone up, the scammer sells and the price falls back down to zero.

S

Serenity | Also known as "Ethereum 2.0", it is the stage of Ethereum development that initiated a set of scaling and sustainability upgrades.

Smart contract | A self-executing agreement (or computer program) that automatically executes between two or more parties under certain conditions that are entered into lines of code on the blockchain. Because they live on the blockchain, that are irreversible and immutable.

T

Transaction Fee | A fee to be paid whenever the Ethereum network is used. Whether it is sending funds from your wallet, swapping tokens or buying a collectible. You can think of this as a service charged determined by how busy the network is.

Turing-Complete | Refers to any computer or machine that can solve any computational problem, no matter how complex, as long as it has the necessary resources.

U

Utility | An additional benefit that can come along with the purchase of certain tokens or NFTs. For example, it can grant you access to private social clubs or exclusive content from its creator.

W

Wallet | Where you keep your tokens and NFTs. MetaMask is a good example of a wallet.

WAGMI | Acronym that stands for "we're all gonna make it". The #wagmi hashtag is widely used by the community to build confidence and encourage the community to not lose hope in times of uncertainty.

Web 2 | Websites that allow users to generate content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability for end users. Users can write, create and share their own content on social media, blogs, websites, podcasts, etc. It is known as "participatory web".

Web 3 | The next iteration of the Internet, where decentralization will be put at the forefront. Web 3 applications will run on blockchains and dApps, therefore benefiting users monetarily, based on their contributions and the content they create or share.