(May 2022 Update)
Are you planning to join the NFT landscape but get cold feet when other people start throwing special terminologies around? Well, every sector has a certain industry-centric language and getting started with NFTs is not as complicated as you might think. Here is a quick Glossary of NFT Terms to help you get past the jargon and start talking the talk of the NFT community:
Ownership
NFTs are stored in blockchain wallets and can only be used by the owner of the private keys. Blockchain assets are non-custodial and one of the purest forms of property rights and digital ownership.
Provenance
Blockchain technology allows any NFT to be traced back to its origin through the public ledger. This trait of NFTs helps to prove the authenticity of ownership and prevent fakes. Provenance is a subject of much interest in the traditional collectibles and antique market because of the need to counter forgery.
Liquidity
The digital nature of NFTs and their integration into major cryptocurrency networks like Ethereum naturally tend toward high liquidity compared to physical goods. However, compared to fungible tokens and currencies, NFTs are significantly less liquid.
Programmability
NFTs can be integrated into digital networks to provide owners with digital benefits or revenue streams. Accordingly, an NFT can be considered a “smartdeed.” Programmability is also what ensures scarcity and enables metadata, these being two critical features of NFTs.
Standardization
NFT protocols are built on open-source software such as Ethereum, a trait that introduces industry-wide standardization for these assets and their functionality. Programmability and standardization, in turn, enable ownership of digital assets across platforms and networks.
10k Project
A 10k project is an NFT collection consisting of approximately 10,000 avatars. This type of NFT was arguably pioneered by the CryptoPunks collection in 2017 with many new ones following since then. They don’t all have exactly 10,000 avatars though, but the term is used to refer to this type of collection rather than the exact number of avatars.
Active ownership
Investors can buy NFTs on marketplaces such as OpenSea or Rarrible. NFT marketplaces differ from exchanges like Binance or the New York Stock Exchange because they are bilateral, not multilateral. Instead of an order book, bilateral exchanges require a single buyer and seller to complete the transaction directly. NFTs are often available for purchase for a fixed fee or through an auction. English and Dutch auctions are common auction types. English auctions are offered on a fixed-price listing where the first bid equal to or greater than the fixed price wins. Otherwise, the seller can choose to take any lower price. Dutch auctions are similar, except the listed price decreases linearly to a specified end price and end date.
Fractional ownership
Investors who cannot afford to spend $100,000 on an NFT can buy partial ownership. Specialized marketplaces such as Unicly and Fractional allow investors to buy small parts of NFTs called fractions or shards for less than $100.17 Both are decentralized applications that allow users to control their own private keys.
Passive ownership
Instead of buying a single NFT, investors can buy funds that provide exposure to a diversified basket of NFTs. During 2021, several centralized and decentralized NFT funds launched. Wave Financial, Three Arrows Capital and Justin Sun from Tron are all launching their own NFT. NFTX allows investors to buy decentralized funds that hold baskets of NFTs or indexes that track a collection such as CryptoPunks
A B
Art Blocks are typical digital art platforms developed on Ethereum blockchain to generate, store and sell art. Art Blocks don’t represent NFT arts or collections.
ADA
Native Cardano blockchain platform started by Charles Hokinson in 2017. Charles is a former co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain network.
AMA
AMA is a common abbreviation in NFT community forums, used to convey the “ask me anything message”. You’ll notice this term regularly as you engage with other NFT holders in your online community.
Asset
An asset is a representation of a digital collectible. All NFTs are digital assets, but not all digital assets are NFTs.
Airdrop
This is an act of sending NFTs or cryptocurrency tokens for free to multiple wallet addresses. You probably see various NFT marketplaces promising to reward original collectors on their platform through Airdrop. Alternatively, marketplaces can Airdrop to attract more users.
Ape
The NFT ecosystem uses this verb to refer to the Bored Ape Yacht Club. This club is the gold standard for NFT drops, with the community’s products fetching insanely high values.
Ape In
Ape in originates from the “apes together strong” meme. The NFT industry uses this name in reference to naïve investors or collectors who rush into buying NFT collections without doing proper background research.
Altcoin
All cryptocurrencies that are an alternative to Bitcoin, including blockchain tokens, such as Solana and Cardano
Art NFT
An art NFT is generally digital content: images, music and videos. Sometimes there is a physical item accompanying the NFT, but this is not always necessary. The NFT may have some function or offer rights to the owner, such as participation in a future art piece or access to exclusive content. Art NFTs often have inbuilt royalties, which pay a percentage of all future sales back to the original artist/creator. This enables fans and collectors to support their favorite artists directly and have a true ownership stake in creative communities.
ATH
An abbreviation for ‘All-Time High’, translating to the highest value an asset can reach at any point in history
Avatar Project
An avatar project is basically the same as a 10k project, i.e., a collection of a few thousand NFT ‘avatars’ like the CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, Gutter Cat Gang, etc
Bearish
Traders, investors, and community members often use this term when they expect an asset’s price to drop sharply. This is a negative sentiment that signals time to sell the target asset or tokens.
Beeple
Michael Joseph Winklemann goes by the name Beeple as his stage or industry identity. Besides creating comical phantasmagoric artworks on multiple mediums, the industry credits Beeple for creating and selling the most expensive NFT ever.
Blockchain
A blockchain is a decentralized database distributed among a computer’s network nodes. Besides storing electronic information in digital formats, blockchain is also used in cryptocurrencies to maintain secure and decentralized transactions records.
Bot
A bot is an automated software used to automate various actions, such as trading in DeFi exchanges, customizing Discord servers, and offering customer support by answering simple user questions.
BSC
BSC is an abbreviation for Binance Smart Chain, an excellent alternative to the Ethereum blockchain network, offering much lower gas fees and faster transaction speeds. Binance, an industry-known crypto exchange, announced this network in September 2020.
BTC
An abbreviation for Bitcoin
BTD
BTD is a popular abbreviation that NFT collectors use when they encourage each other to “Buy the Dips” after an asset’s price drop. Think of a dip as a bargain because the asset will likely bounce back to its high value in no time.
BURST
This term refers to popular NFT assets on the market that a typical collector would want to buy.
Burn
To burn an NFT essentially means to destroy it. If only 5,000 NFTs are sold in a collection that was intended to consist of 10,000, for instance, the team may decide to ‘burn’ the remaining 5,000. Other projects let their owners ‘burn’ two NFTs to receive a new and more rare one.
Burning
Burning is the process of getting rid of NFTs by sending them to the contract address. This destroys the underlying tokens since they cannot be transferred to another user from the contract address.
Bullish
The exact opposite of bearish. Traders, investors, and community members use this term when they expect an asset’s value to appreciate in the near future. It signals an opportune time to invest in the target asset or tokens.
Buyers
A standard name for NFT digital artwork collectors who buy them with the intention to resale later at a higher price.
CAT
A popular abbreviation in CryptoKitties, standing for Cryptocollectible Asset Token, one of the most sought-after NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain network.
CDS
CDS is an abbreviation representing Community Designated Sellers who set up private addresses with a specific fee and intention for other users who want to sell their items.
Cardano
Cardano is a decentralized, open-source, public blockchain that leverages proof of stake as consensus. The platform facilitates peer-to-peer transactions, using Ada, the network’s native cryptocurrency founded in 2015 by Charles Hokinson.
Collectible
A collectible is any rare, digital item that holds intrinsic value for its uniqueness. It can be anything from a typical autograph to digital artwork.
Cold Wallet
Physical hardware for storing or holding digital assets, such as NFTs and cryptocurrencies. Typically, this wallet is more secure than a hot wallet.
Colored Coins
various techniques used by investors to manage real-world or physical assets on the Bitcoin blockchain network.
Concordium
This is a powerful blockchain powering innovative NFT marketplaces, such as SpaceSeven. Developers choose Concordium over other networks, thanks to its lower gas fees, faster transactions, and regulated ID-centric protocol.
Copy Cat
A term used in reference to artists who copy creative ideas or behavior from other people in the NFT community. Think of a copycat as a knock-off project.
Crossroad
A name given to Beeple’s most expensive NFT video.
Cryptocurrencies
These are digital currencies, such as Bitcoin and Litecoin that leverage cryptography to control new coins origination and secure transactions.
Crypto
Another name for cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocollectibles
Blockchain assets that represent unique digital items, such as CryptoKitties, the first NFTs. However, users can’t trade these items.
CryptoPunks
CryptoPunks includes a collection of unique, 10,000 pixel-art images created by Larva Labs in 2017.
CryptoKitties
A popular blockchain game built by the Canadian Dapper Labs on the Ethereum network. CryptoKitties players can acquire, collect, breed, and sell virtual NFT cats.
Crowdsales
Crowdsales are pre-sales of NFT projects created by companies, where users can leverage ETH or other altcoins to acquire the new token. The tokens are sold on a first come first serve basis.
CBDCs
An acronym for Central Bank Digital Currencies. Think of CBDCs as digital fiat currencies inspired by cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks. Users can leverage these currencies to pay for items, such as NFTs.
Casper
A protocol that Ethereum is working on in a bid to upgrade its proof-of-stake protocol and replace the proof-of-work model. Once commissioned, this protocol will improve the network’s security and scalability.
Confirmation
Refers to the number of validated transactions on a blockchain that has been added to the decentralized ledger.
Cryptoeconomics
Cryptoeconomics combines information theory, cryptography, and information science to create secure, user-centric economic systems that leverage a proof-of-work consensus model.
Crypto-Native Assets
These are digital tokens that derive value from the decentralized consensus in their blockchain network. The blockchain network’s community is responsible for building the consensus. Prevalent crypto-native assets include Ether, Binance, Matic, and Cardano.
dApps
These are decentralized applications running on decentralized computing systems. However, some industry experts may also define dApps as smart contracts because they leverage distributed ledger technologies.
DAO
This is an abbreviation for Decentralized Autonomous Organization, a community governed by an entity or a single individual. The underlying rules governing a typical DAO are immutable because they exist as coded smart contracts in the blockchain. When you own an NFT from a project like Headdoa, you and all the other owners have voting rights and control over the future actions and overall direction of the project. Many NFT projects are setting up similar structures to become more community-driven and secure ongoing support.
DeFi
This represents Decentralized Finance, a system where users are their own bankers with no central oversight or regulation. All transactions in DeFi are confirmed and automated in smart contracts.
Delist
The act of canceling an NFT listing for sale from an open marketplace, such as SpaceSeven.
Decentraland
This is a decentralized platform in the Metaverse, consisting of 90,601 land parcels. Decentraland users can purchase these pieces of virtual land as NFTs using MANA tokens. Developers opened Decentraland to the public in early 2020.
Degen
A term used in reference to NFT investors who acquire collectibles without due diligence.
Devs
The industry uses this term to refer to crypto or BFT projects developers.
DEX
DEX is an abbreviation for decentralized exchange, a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace where traders can do transactions amongst themselves without an intermediary. Popular industry DEXEs include Uniswap and PancakeSwap.
Discord
Discord remains one of the go-to social media platforms leveraged by gaming and NFT developers to engage and inform their communities about updates on the project at hand.
Dutch Action
This is a bidding mechanism that considers all bids made on an NFT before creating a ceiling price that drops gradually over time.
Diamond Hands
This is a popular industry phrase used in reference to a high-risk tolerant investor eyeing high volatility assets. This term has been around since 2018, referring to investors who don’t fret no matter how much the value of their assets decreases.
Dead Coin
A project that launches with the aim of building a cryptocurrency but fails before the whole idea materializes.
Distribution
The act of selling coins by whales in a bid to stabilize prices. Whales are investors who hold large amounts of cryptocurrencies to prevent them from crashing.
Double-Spend
A double-spend happens when a user sends two transactions subsequently because they thought the first one didn’t go through. This happens when a user isn’t patient enough to confirm the first transaction on-chain.
Digital Gold
Users hold some cryptocurrencies in high regard, thanks to their value and storage. They refer to these cryptocurrencies as digital gold.
DYOR
An acronym used by NFT community members, often pronounced as “DIOR”. This term stands for ‘Do Your Own Research’, encouraging community members to do due diligence instead of riding on Twitter roars and myopic forecasts before buying a target NFT.
DROP
A DROP is an initial launch of a new NFT project or collection. Unlike Airdrop, these NFTs are not free. Also, the project doesn’t award tokens to users.
Enjin
Enjin is another popular blockchain gaming platform that empowers players to create their own digital collectibles as NFTs. Users can leverage their tokens across multiple video games on PC or mobile devices.
Entry and Exit Points
Points where a user can decide to sell a particular crypto or NFT.Ethereum
one of the cryptocurrencies.
ETH
ETH is an abbreviation for Ethereum. NFT users use this abbreviation interchangeably to refer to Ether, the Ethereum blockchain’s native cryptocurrency.
Ether
Ether is an altcoin running on its own blockchain under the Ethereum network. Users leverage Ether as “gas” to complete transactions or optimize dApps functionality.
Etherscan
A popular block explorer that allows users to confirm the value of their digital collectibles. Users can also leverage Etherscan to verify balances and transactions.
ERC-721
This is a standard token on the Ethereum blockchain network.
Ethereum 2.0
Ethereum 2.0 is an upgraded Ethereum network built to offer better security and more scalability. Unlike the traditional Ethereum blockchain, the upgraded version leverages staking as the mining model.
Exchange- This is an act of swapping crypto assets in order to get another crypto asset on an exchange platform, such as Binance. However, some exchanges allow users to buy crypto assets using credit cards.
ERC-20
A standard in the Ethereum blockchain network that ensures all chain transactions comply with specific rules.
Everydays
Everydays is the most expensive NFT ever sold in the industry, which retailed at $69.3 million in 2021. This collection is an original creation of Winkelmann.
EVM
An acronym for Ethereum Virtual Machine, a protocol that monitors and keeps track of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain network. EVM enables users to execute smart contracts simultaneously, while also calculating gas pieces before transactions.
Farm
Farm in NFTs is what “mine” is to cryptocurrencies. Users can farm NFTs by using GPU to mine tokens. Typically, a user’s computer connects to a network of other computers mining on the blockchain.
Fear and Grid Index
The fear and Grid index is a technical indicator for measuring market sentiments using the prices of seven different assets.
Fiat
The name given to hard currencies (legal tender by Central banks), such as Euro and USD.
Flipping
The act of buying NFT assets at low pieces with the hope of selling them at better rates almost immediately. Users flip to make quick profits, especially on new projects that are in high demand.
Floor
The ‘floor’ or ‘floor price’ of a project is simply the lowest price at which you can buy an NFT from that project on the secondary market. It’s the most popular metric for tracking a project’s performance over time and its relative success compared to others.
Floor Sweeping
This refers to a group of investors who always buy NFTs listed at the lowest prices. That’s why you’ll often come across users in Discord flooding the platform with “sweep the floor” messages.
Floor Price
This is the lowest price tag on an NFT collection. Floor prices are an excellent joining point for newbies with relatively lower investment amounts.
Flippening
Flippening refers to the moment when a crypto’s market cap surpasses that of another cryptocurrency. A crypto’s market cap translates to the total value of its circulating tokens.
FOMO
FOMO is an abbreviation for “Fear of Missing Out” often used in reference to newbies who buy as many NFT assets as possible because people around them are doing so. FOMO is not for sophisticated investors.
Fractionalized NFTs
These are NFTs subdivided into smaller pieces by the original creator, to be sold to multiple collectors. Thanks to fractionalized NFTs, users can now own iconic artworks without necessarily going deep into their pockets.
FVCKRENDER
Also known as Fredrick Duquette, FVCKRENDER is a celebrated NFT artist who sells his artworks for as high as 25ETH. Fredrick has featured on various NFT collections as a talented artist, focusing on sharp architectural geometry bordered by landscapes and brilliant crystalline arrangements.
Fork
Ab intentional or accidental split in a blockchain network, especially when multiple miners stumble on one block at a time. There are also other types of forks, such as soft and hard forks.
FUD
FUD is a term used to mean fear, uncertainty, and doubt especially when NFT users sell their assets when a project is dropping or after hearing negative forecasts about the project. The term is used to describe negative news stories, tweets, Discord messages, etc., that are either inaccurate or completely false. You’ll often see people point to FUD as the reason behind large price drops in cryptocurrencies or NFTs. Nonetheless, never let emotions take control of your hardly-earned assets.
FUDster
A user spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt, about NFT or crypto projects for self gains. However, FUDsters can also spread misguided information without any motive.
Fungible Tokens
Fungible tokens include tokens that can change hands (transferable) or be used to trade, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Futures
A special contract used by investors in a bid to realize more profits later or as a hedge against risks. Futures allow users to buy or sell an asset at a future date for the price agreed at the moment.
Gaming NFTs
Represent in-game assets, such as items and property, which have functional uses in the virtual world. Players in blockchain game economies have the opportunity to generate revenue, innovate, create, and have a true stake in the game world. Games like Axie Infinity, Alien Worlds and Gods Unchained have attracted large player bases and significant volumes. Applications are becoming increasingly sophisticated as in-game economies and “play-to-earn” monetization models mature. One example is guild DAOs, which manage a treasury of NFTs, game currencies and ownership stake across virtual worlds. These organizations sponsor players and offer them a percentage of the companies’ revenue. They also host bounties and competitions, and grow communities.
Gas
The price for making a transaction on a blockchain is called ‘gas’. When buying NFTs on a blockchain like Solana, gas is negligible. On Ethereum, however, a $50 gas fee is about the lowest you can hope for, and it all depends on the activity on the network. Low activity, low fees. High activity, high fees. Which leads me to the next term you need to know…
Gas Fees
Gas fees are the amount that users pay blockchain networks to complete a transaction. This fee goes to the blockchain network’s miners in a bid to compensate for the computing energy used to validate transactions.
Gas War
A phenomenon that drives Ethereum gas prices higher, especially when thousands of collectors flock to a minting page at the same time to buy NFTs. However, this happens for only a short while.
Generative Set
This is an NFT set whose images generate programmatically. Generative NFT sets feature multiple asset classes, such as backgrounds, beams, clothes, or even finishing. In short, all the NFTs in each of these collections have certain traits in common: Clothes, skin or fur color, eye type, headwear, background color, etc. With 20 different types of clothes, 20 different eye types, 20 different background colors, etc., it’s possible to mix and match these traits to create a collection of 10,000 NFTs that are all unique. While the initial traits are hand-made, each NFT is automatically created by a computer with a random combination of all the available traits. This is the part of the process that’s described as ‘generative’.Genesis Block
A blockchain’s first block, hardcoded to bootstrap the underlying network.
GM
A popular acronym used by members of various Discord channels to say good morning.
GMI
Another very popular abbreviation is GMI, and its offsprings WAGMI and NGMI. GMI means ‘Going to make it’, as in “If you buy and hold on to this awesome NFT, you’re gonna become rich and have a great life!” (more or less). WAGMI, naturally, means ‘We’re all going to make it’. NGMI on the other hand means ‘Not going to make it’. Use these terms as frequently as possible to be perceived as a true NFT insider.
GPU
Graphics processing unit that users need to mine various types of cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum.
GWEI
Popularly known as nanoether, GWEI is the measurement for Ethereum gas price, often denoted by ninth of a fractional ETH (0.000000001 ETH).
Halving
Halving is an act used to control Bitcoin’s supply and scarcity by reducing Bitcoin mining rewards by 50% after every four years. Ideally, users cannot mine more than 21 million Bitcoins.
Hedging- An act of leveraging two strategies in a bid to mitigate the investment risks posed by either of them.
Hardware Wallet
Same as a cold wallet.
Harshrate
Harshrate measures the speed a GPU can leverage to mime crypto tokens.
Hash
A hash can be a well-thought or randomly generated hexadecimal number representing a string of data. Users can code data into a hash through hashing. However, a specific group of data may generate the same hash.
Hot Wallet
Unlike a hot wallet, a cold wallet is a virtual currency wallet accessible on the internet. Owners can use this wallet to make cryptocurrency transactions between themselves and other end users. Prevalent hot wallets in the industry include MetaMask, Coinbase, and Walletconnect.
HODL
HODL is an inverted HOLD, which loosely translates to “hold on for dear life”. This term originated from a fortuitous typo on an early Bitcoin forum in 2013. It refers to holding an asset for a relatively long time, regardless of price fluctuations.
ICO
ICO is an abbreviation for Initial Coin Offering, where project developers sell their digital assets to early adapters.
IDO
An acronym for Initial Decentralized Offering. IDO is nearly similar to ICO( Initial Coin Offering), only that it allows users to interact with the project at hand before it launches officially.
IEO
An acronym for initial exchange, which entails selling a coin for the first time on decentralized digital currency exchange.
IPFS
An acronym for Interplanetary File System. This is a P2P (peer-to-peer) network or protocol that stores and shares data on a decentralized file system. Juan Benet created this project back in 2015 with an aim of fixing the current HTTP hitches, such as the requirement of every node on a network to host data when uploading content on the IPFS network.
KYC
Also known as know your customer, blockchain companies use KYC to comply with identity requirements and regulations. They do this by giving forms to new users to fill in their names and personal information.
Keys- Keys are special features that allow parties to complete transactions on a blockchain network securely.
KOL
An abbreviation for ‘Key Opinion Leader’ especially in a Telegram or Discord channel.
Ledger
A record-keeping system for all cryptocurrencies and digital assets, including NFTs.
Lex Informatica
Platforms and services building on NFTs must adhere to the infrastructure design and consensus of blockchain networks. NFTs that represent digital benefits can be tracked within a decentralized ledger and do not rely on any institution or jurisdiction for enforcement. The emergent rules and regulations from self-organizing systems are referred to as Lex Informatica, as distinct from legal regulation. This system of regulation is analogous to the legal network that enforces traditional ownership rights over cars and houses.
LFG
‘LFG’ means ‘Let’s fucking go!’. Pretty self-explanatory. It’s used in excitement about new project launches, big NFT news, etc
Lightning Network
The lightning network is a solution in the works that aims to boost transaction speeds on the BTC blockchain network. With this solution, users will be able to do transactions using pre-funded channels as opposed to the current global consensus confirmation protocol.
Metadata
You may have heard of metadata after Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the United States National Security Agency gleaning metadata for mass surveillance on American citizens. Metadata is information that defines and describes data. For example, shipping freights have a manifest that lists all the cargo with explanations, associations and relationships. Email metadata includes information such as the sender, recipient, date and subject line. Similarly, NFT metadata describes the item properties such as name, image and text description. However, metadata can be used for much more, such as describing the NFT’s properties in a game environment or the licensing rights of the NFT. Because storing data on blockchains is expensive, metadata is stored off-chain, with a “pointer” in the token contract.
Metaverse
Metaverses are networks of virtual environments where people can interact with each other, digital objects and the physical world through their avatars. While most compare metaverses to virtual reality experiences like in The Matrix, metaverses are more related to ownership of digital assets and identity across cyberspace. NFTs enable this with blockchain ownership and immutability, enabling continuity of one’s avatar and digital items across platforms. With recent announcements from Facebook and Epic Games regarding their use of metaverse technology, the application is garnering much attention. Metaverse projects today aim to develop architecture, engage users with transmedia stories and build virtual world platforms.
Memecoin
Any digital currency used for social media purposes because it doesn’t hold any inherent value.
Metadata- A metadata describes the information of a specific NFT, including name, collection, series, or the image itself.
Moon or Mooning
Moon is a verb that the NFT community uses to describe hitting the highest or ever-elusive NFT value anyone can hope for. For instance, saying that a particular NFT has “moon” means it has attained that value.
Mining Difficulty
A process where miners use computing power to gauge mining competency over time. Miners can also use this process to solve difficult cryptographic puzzles before validating transactions or earning mining rewards.
Mining Rigs
Mining rigs are custom-built dedicated computer systems for solving complex cryptographic puzzles when mining cryptocurrencies. Mining rigs are synonymous with Ethereum and Bitcoin Miners.
Mint
An act of putting a digital asset on circulation, through the Ethereum blockchain network as an ERC720 token. Minting makes it possible to own this asset digitally and trade it on open marketplaces as NFTs.
Minting
When you’re buying a completely new NFT from the creator, you’re ‘minting’ it. It’s basically the process of creating that NFT on the blockchain.
MM
MM is shorthand for MetaMask, the most popular NFT wallet in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Non-Fungible Tokens
Also known as NFTs, these are digital representations of unique assets, such as artwork, memes, Avatars, or even sports memorabilia. Since every NFT is unique, non-fungible tokens have no standard value.
On-Chain Governance
This entails a blockchain-centric system where community members vote to implement or pass decisions or upgrades proposed in a bid to improve the network. This system is pretty common in DAOs.
OpenSea- One of the many NFT marketplaces dominating the industry, where users can mint, sell and trade NFTs.
Open Source
A term used to describe decentralized platforms, such as NFT marketplaces, meaning no individual or organization actually owns it.
OS
OS is shorthand for OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace on Ethereum
Otherside
Yuga Labs’ popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) branded a NFT project called Otherside. The project offered 100,000 “deeds” in exchange for “virtual land” in the form of NFTs. The cost of registering an .eth domain went up to more than $4,666…
Paperhands
Users who buy into NFT projects and collections only to resale them almost immediately. Paperhands can make a minimal gain or loss because online FUD makes them nervous.
PFP
An acronym for ‘Picture for Proof’, even though some people in the industry use profile interchangeably with picture. This acronym is common in generative set NFTs drop. Users can leverage an Avatar as PFP. So a ‘PFP project’ is essentially the same as a 10k project or an avatar project. This term is simply used because the avatars in such projects are often used as profile pictures on Twitter, Discord, etc.
Pizza
A name coined for the first BTC transaction when a programmer known as Laszlo Hanyecz paid for two pizzas at Papa John’s using 10,000 BTC, valued at $40, during that period.
Primary Sale
The initial sale or collection period of an NFT drop which often happens on the drop’s site minting page.
PoA
An acronym for proof-of-authority. Validators use this mechanism to prove that they hold a certain amount of stake before being allowed to add their nodes on a blockchain network and verify transactions.
Proof-of-Work
A solution to a mathematical problem often used to create blockchain coins or verify whether transactions comply with the provisions of a smart contract.
Proof-of-Stake
An alternative to proof-of-stake where miners deposit new coins as a stake in a special wallet to mine on a new block or get the chance to validate transactions. Stakes remain frozen when users are mining or validating transactions.
Reveal
This is literal. It refers to when an NFT drop changes the metadata pointer in the smart contract. This happens after the pre-reveal period where the true image of the target NFT gets revealed to the public for the first time. For new generative projects, the artwork won’t actually be created until the NFT is minted, and you won’t know exactly what you get until after you buy it. In other words, the art only reveals itself after it’s purchased. It’s up to the creators behind the collection whether the reveal happens immediately, when the collection sells out, or with a delay of 24 or 48 hours for instance
Ripple
A decentralized exchange platform with its own ledger and cryptocurrency, known as XRP. Users can leverage the peer-to-peer network to swap tokens or fiat money for cryptocurrencies.
Roadmap
A term used to outline an NFT drop’s existence. Briefly, a roadmap outlines what is happening throughout the project, sometimes even future projections.
Rug Pull
An act of luring someone into an NFT project or collection by deceiving them. Some traders can do this by giving wrong intel and projections about a target asset. A ‘rugpull’ is something I hope you’ll never experience! It’s essentially a scam where the people behind a seemingly legit project disappear with all the money immediately after launch. You might get an actual NFT in return for what you paid, but it’s most likely worthless and not even tradeable on a secondary marketplace.
Rugpull is often used as a verb as well, as in “I got rugpulled” or simply “I got rugged”. You’ll also see some people on Discord simply writing ‘rug’, often to spread FUD in the community of a specific project.
Satoshi Nakamoto
A pseudonym for the person or group of individuals responsible for creating Bitcoin. However, no one knows the true identity of the developer(s).
SpaceSeven
An innovative, Concordium-powered NFT platform for minting, selling, and trading NFTs. SpaceSeven will launch its native token soon.
Stablecoins
Asset-backed cryptocurrencies, whose values are tied to more stable assets to mitigate the industry’s volatility and risks.
Security Tokens
Traditional assets, such as stock or shares, converted into digital tokens on a blockchain network. Holding a security token comes with its ownership rights, just like traditional stocks and shares.
Secondary Market
Secondary market refers to the buying and selling that happen after a primary sale.
Sellout
Used to describe the success of an NFT project or collection after buyers collect all the items.
Snapshot
In relation to the airdrops mentioned above, a team will often take a snapshot at a certain point in time to determine who’s eligible. For instance, everyone who held NFT X in their wallet at the time of the snapshot on November 11, 4pm UTC, will get a free airdrop of NFT Y next week.
‘Sweeping’ is another commonly uttered term because of people’s interest in a project’s ‘floor’. To ‘sweep the floor’ means to buy up a large number of the cheapest NFTs in a collection on the secondary market. Teams sometimes do this, or are asked by the community to do this, for their own projects. Other times it may be done by a single individual, referred to as a ‘whale’
Utility NFTs
Special tokens give the holder unlimited or some level of access to a blockchain-centric product or service. For instance, NFT utility tokens give holders access to exclusive collections, galleries, and communities. Utility NFTs provide the owner with some functional or monetary rights, usually in a digital platform context. These range from governance rights to insurance rights, licensing, and much more. Utility NFTs overlap with enterprise use cases but are available to a general audience. Domain names are one of the most popular items in this category and attract high sales prices and substantial market volumes. These services enable users to register a domain name to their wallet, which can host a website or serve as a payment address and universal username. Insurance NFTs are offered by Yearn.finance and underwritten by Nexus Mutual, with the insurance payout tied to the NFT owner.
Verified Contract
Unlike a typical smart contract, a verified contract allows users to read, study, and audit the code. Verified contracts are prevalent on transactions where parties require a higher level of trust, preferably verifiable by another third party.
Volatility
A term used in reference to how an asset’s value appreciates over time. Investors consider highly volatile assets as riskier than less volatile assets.
Warm Wallets
Crypto or NFT wallets that store keys in a downloadable server as opposed to an online, cloud server. Think of it as a mix of both hot and cold wallets (features) that connects to the internet when the user needs them.
WAGMI
An acronym coined by NFT communities, loosely translating to ‘We’re All Gonna Make It’. Community members use this term to portray an optimistic supply-demand picture that looks profitable in the long haul.
Whale
A ‘whale’ is basically someone with a lot of money, either available to invest or already invested in a high-value NFT project. Thus, someone with 1,000 ETH in their account would be considered a whale, just like someone with 200 Bored Apes would. Whales are important because of their power to move markets, either upward by buying a lot from a given collection or downward by selling.
XBT
An abbreviation for Bitcoin
XRP
Ripple’s cryptocurrency.
Yield Farming
A protocol that allows crypto holders to earn other crypto tokens as rewards if they lend their assets to other users. Think of Yield Farming as a crypto investment in interest-bearing loans.
Zero-Knowledge Proof or ZKP
This is a protocol that permissionless blockchain platforms will likely leverage in the near future to verify knowledge or prove information without necessarily revealing the contents.